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https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/how-to-build-a-vacuum-form-table-that-gets-it-right-every-time/ | How To Build A Vacuum Form Table That Gets It Right Every Time | Mike Nathan | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"heat",
"mdf",
"props",
"vacuum forming"
] | [James] builds all sorts of robots and superhero costume replicas at home, so he is always searching for a better way
to get consistent results when using his vacuum table.
A lot of people use their oven or exposed heating coils from electric frying pans to warm the plastic sheets, but [James] wasn’t really interested in going down that route. He cites that he would rather not heat plastic in the oven where he cooks his food, nor is he really keen on the idea of exposed heating elements.
Instead, he opted for a slightly pricier, though completely reasonable setup that produces consistent results every time. Most of the forming table was built using MDF sheeting, as you can see in the video below. His heating apparatus was the most expensive part of the rig, since it’s an off the shelf quartz-based room heater. He lays the heater on its back side, and directs the heat up through an MDF frame using aluminum foil as a reflector. The plastic sheeting mounted at the top heats evenly, and in no time, he has a perfectly vacuum formed prop that is ready to be painted.
Sure, it might cost a bit more than some other vacuum formers we’ve looked at before, but spending a bit more up front to get consistent results is well worth it if you ask us.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maH5Ech0wK8&w=470] | 27 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "445119",
"author": "zuul",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T21:11:26",
"content": "hmm surprising that works that well",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "445122",
"author": "Kade",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T21:25:28",
"content":... | 1,760,377,098.018688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/multitouch-tower-defense-uses-physical-towers/ | Multitouch Tower Defense Uses Physical Towers | Mike Szczys | [
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"infrared",
"ps3 eye",
"reacTIVision"
] | If you’re tired of playing flash games with a mouse, perhaps you’ll draw inspiration from this project. Arthur built
a multitouch interface that uses objects as part of the control scheme
. In the image above you can see that the game board for a tower defense game is shown on the display. There is a frustum-shaped game piece resting on the surface. Just place that piece where you want to build your next tower, and then select the tower type from the list.
The controller itself is pretty straight-forward. The surface is a piece of acrylic topped with some light diffusing material. A projector shines through another acrylic window on the side of the unit, reflecting on a mirror positioned at a 45 degree angle. As for the multitouch detection, the hardware uses a series of UV LEDs along with a modified PS3 eye camera. [Arthur] chose the
reacTIVision software package
to process the input from the camera. Check out a couple of videos after the break to see the hardware, and some game play.
A look at the hardware:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-5YXHaTRdQ&w=470]
Game play:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC8bICQfcCw&w=470] | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "445170",
"author": "loans",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T22:51:07",
"content": "It’d be really cool to see a system which actually used physical tokens for the towers, perhaps with a dispensary for tower tokens as you progress through a level.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,098.267595 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/virtual-machine-for-microcontrollers-lets-you-run-python-on-avr-chips/ | Virtual Machine For Microcontrollers Lets You Run Python On AVR Chips | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"AVR",
"virtual machine",
"vm"
] | [Clifford Wolf] wrote in to let us know about a project he recently completed called EmbedVM. It’s
a virtual machine for AVR microcontrollers
. The package has a relatively small overhead, taking up about 3kB of program memory. The VM can execute 74,000 instructions per second, and runs asynchronously from the microcontroller. As [Clifford] demonstrates in the videos after the break, this can be handy for preloading commands to prevent slowdown during heavy VM processor loads.
The snippet in the image above is an example program written in the C-like VM code which will play some [Rick Astley] on a speaker. This code can be run from RAM, EEPROM, or even external storage like an SD card. Recently there was a supplemental compiler project that even takes Python code and compiles it into VM byte-code. What a nice abstraction tool for making inexpensive microcontroller-based designs easily programmable for those that have a bit of Python experience.
If you don’t recognize the name, [Clifford Wolf] is also the author of OpenSCAD, a tool that is
quite popular with 3D printing
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVUh5eVN8gU&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaRRwuWSbMs&w=470] | 23 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "445048",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T19:16:47",
"content": "ownage!ps: first",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "445063",
"author": "EllisGL",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T19:43:26",
"content": "Next up Java... | 1,760,377,098.226115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/the-life-and-death-of-a-fantastically-brilliant-flashlight/ | The Life And Death Of A Fantastically Brilliant Flashlight | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"flashlight"
] | [Holzleim’s]
flashlight build is quite impressive
. And the rise and fall of the hardware is quite a story. He designed it as a handheld light, relying on batteries to power a multitude of high-power LEDs inside.From the collection of four 5350 mAh lithium polymer cells he was able to achieve a peak power output that surpasses 500 Watts!
Projects that
make use of these powerful LED modules
have heat dissipation as a major design element. With this in mind, [Holzleim] used large bars of copper as a mounting surface for each group of modules. The size and thickness of these bars made it difficult to use traditional soldering techniques to affix the bodies of the modules so he ended up using a clothes iron to ramp up the temperature high enough to reflow the solder. Once mounted, most of the LEDs were paired with optics, including that Fresnel lens at the center, to help focus the light.
To keep the batteries topped off, [Holzleim] designed his own external charger which can run off of mains or from a car’s electrical system. Unfortunately he must not have included a way to monitor the battery temperature because one of the cells failed, causing a fire that burnt out the components inside the flashlight. Luckily his wife was home at the time and got the failing device outside where it didn’t cause more damage. We’ve linked to his posts regarding the charging system, the properly functioning light burning paper with its beam intensity, and his sad announcement about the fire after the break.
Recharging circuit
Burning paper
Death by flaming battery
[Thanks BadWolf] | 21 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "445021",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T18:11:39",
"content": "Man, that’s a lot of money to go setting on fire.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "445025",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T18:17:52",... | 1,760,377,098.481015 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/making-a-line-following-toy-into-a-programmable-robot/ | Making A Line-following Toy Into A Programmable Robot | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"launchpad",
"line following",
"msp430",
"msp430g2231"
] | [Eric Gregori] picked up this little yellow robot as a kit build. It has a single PCB inside that has a pair of IR emitters and detectors pointed downward at the front of the robot. It is able to follow a dark line on a light surface based on how the infrared beam reflects back to the detector. But it’s a one-trick pony that [Eric] wanted to
make into a programmable robot
.
The kit came with a schematic, which makes the process of patching into its logic quite easy. There are two motors, each with a driver circuit made up of a pair of transistors and one flyback diode. This means the motors can only move in one direction, but they also only take one logic connection to control. Instead of populating the transistor that usually connects the IR receiver to the motor driver, [Eric] soldered jumper wires from each to an MSP430 chip (the G2231 that came with his Launchpad).
As you can see in the clip after the break, the first version of the code he wrote makes the robot follow a line as it would if it had not been altered. But there’s still plenty of programming space and several free I/O pins for future improvements.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esN8YbVe6Fk&w=470] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "445127",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T21:33:48",
"content": "so who’s gonna take over the world first, the robot or the cat?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,098.166095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/insects-turned-into-orchestra-not-harmed-but-terribly-inconvenienced/ | Insects Turned Into Orchestra; Not Harmed But Terribly Inconvenienced | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"abelton live",
"arduino",
"insects",
"midi"
] | [Jochem] has always been fascinated by chaos in nature, whether it’s a swarm of ants or evolution in action in a petri dish. His
insect orchestra
takes the chaos in the natural world and changes it into something completely artificial. In this case, MIDI.
For the build, a light sensor was placed at the bottom of a test tube. A cricket (or grasshopper, or locust) is then put into the test tube. The test tube is then closed up with a cap that houses a LED. An Arduino reads the light sensors and then
transmits the data over MIDI
. The MIDI commands are picked up in Abelton Live which converts everything to audio.
[Jochem] rigged up Abelton to have the insects perform in four different modes – instrument, synthesis, samples, and drums. Definitely an improvement over the humble
Mexican Jumping bean
.
You can check out the insect orchestra in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33HVda4Ryeo&w=470] | 28 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "444968",
"author": "austin",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T16:24:16",
"content": "ummm…what?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "444973",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T16:40:13",
"content": "PETA is not going to ... | 1,760,377,098.384524 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/making-a-bluetooth-headset-into-a-wireless-music-streaming-device/ | Making A Bluetooth Headset Into A Wireless Music Streaming Device | Jeremy Cook | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"headset",
"wireless"
] | This
bluetooth headset hack
, although simple, may provide some hacking inspiration. Turning a Bluetooth headset into a wireless input for one’s stereo is definitely something that makes one think “why didn’t I think of that?” It’s also good if you’ve got a tight hacking budget as there’s not a lot of stuff to buy.
In addition to a possibly broken headset, a 3.5mm stereo plug and some wires are needed for this. Throw in some tools that every good hacker should have around like a soldering iron and glue gun and you’re ready to get started. [Dex] does a good job of describing the process, from disassembling the headset to wiring the stereo plug to it. When making the conversion, one must remember to bridge the left and right output channels, as most headsets only output a mono signal.
There’s not a whole lot else required to do this hack. Could be a good beginner project. For another Bluetooth-based hack using scrounged equipment, check out this Cellphone controlled
retro-radio hack
. | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "444961",
"author": "MarkMy",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T16:02:12",
"content": "Nice job, and I always appreciate some reverse-engineering, but just in case anyones looking to replicate, you can find stereo bluetooth receivers for $13 online with free ship if you look around a little, ... | 1,760,377,098.121533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/vga-video-output-with-an-attiny/ | VGA Video Output With An ATtiny | Mike Nathan | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"tv",
"vga"
] | [Fernando] is working on creating a game at home, with live scoring displayed on a large LCD TV. He’s keeping mum as to what the game entails, but he was
more than happy to spill the details
on how he planned to use the television as a wireless scoreboard.
The writeup is the first part in what will likely be a substantial series of progress reports, covering how he used an ATtiny45 to drive his LCD display. Eventually, the scoreboard will use a Bluetooth adapter for wireless input, but his immediate goal was to get the display running properly.
He explains how he uses the tiny micro and its limited set of I/O pins to drive the display, dipping into some of the technical details along the way. He discusses how he worked out the timings of the VSYNC and HSYNC pulsing, as well as how how the characters are actually drawn on the screen.
The article isn’t overly heavy on the technical details, and he has sample code available so you can take a look at how the VGA magic was done, so be sure to check it out. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "444927",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T14:37:12",
"content": "Very cool little project! I’ll have to remember this if I come up with a need for it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "445093",
"... | 1,760,377,098.424377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/a-cellphone-based-interactive-voice-response-system/ | A Cellphone Based Interactive Voice Response System | Mike Szczys | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"dtmf",
"ivrs",
"lm324",
"mt8870",
"mysql",
"python"
] | We’re all familiar with IVRS systems that let you access information using a touch-tone telephone. [Achu Wilso] built
his own version which uses a cellphone, microcontroller, and computer
.
The cellphone is monitored by an LM324 op-amp with an attached 555 timer chip. When a call comes in the voltage on the headphone output goes high, activating the timer circuit. If it goes low and does not go high again for about 25 seconds the call will be ended. Each incoming touch tone acts as a keepalive for the circuit.
An MT8870 DTMF (touch tone) decoder chip monitors the user input. An ATmega8 microcontroller grabs the decoded touch tones from that chip, and pushes them to a PC via USB. The PC-side software is written in Python, using MySQL bindings to access database information.
eSpeak
, the open source speech synthesizer software is used to read menu and database information back to the caller.
Not a bad little system, we wish there was an audio clip so we could hear it in action. | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "444440",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T18:40:52",
"content": "“Wilso”? Jeez. I know y’all don’t like typo complaints, but is it too much to spell the guy’s name right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "444495",
"... | 1,760,377,098.07228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/retractable-ipad-dock-for-the-kitchen/ | Retractable IPad Dock For The Kitchen | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"ipod hacks"
] | [
"dock",
"ipad",
"kitchen"
] | [Evan Flint] and his wife use a lot of online recipes in the kitchen. Rather than printing them out, they bought an iPad as a cooking companion. But in their cramped kitchen he needed to find a place for the high-end hardware that is out-of-the-way yet accessible. Some head scratching and parts bin diving led to
this under-cabinet iPod dock
.
The dock itself is a cradle made out of sheet aluminum. After cutting to shape, [Evan] bent up the sides and bottom to center the iPad. Since this is not a permanent fixture he needed to make the cradle collapsible. He used a CAD program to design the base tray to let the cradle lay flat, while giving several options to the angle when it is in use. Once the cooking is done just fold it up and the drawer slides make for easy under-cabinet storage.
Because he doesn’t own the house he didn’t want to make permanent alterations to the cabinet. But he does lament the unfinished look of the drawer slides. We’d just grab some pre-finished oak crown molding from the home store and wrap the entire thing. The left-edge of molding could slide out with the cradle when in use. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "444398",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T17:31:59",
"content": "Cool idea, needs refinement. My wife would take the meat cleaver to me if I left anything that ugly under the counter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,377,098.321267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/water-vortex-exhibit-repair-gives-a-look-at-the-bearing-and-gasket-design/ | Water Vortex Exhibit Repair Gives A Look At The Bearing And Gasket Design | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"bearing",
"gasket",
"impeller",
"vortex"
] | [Ben Krasnow’s] water vortex machine has been an exhibit in the lobby of the San Jose City Hall for quite some time now. Unfortuantely he recently had to perform
some repair work on it
due to the parts inside the water chamber rusting.
This is the same water vortex that
we saw about a year ago
. It uses a power drill to drive an impeller at the bottom of a water column to produce the vortex. That impeller was made from painted steel and after being submerged for eight months it began rusting, which discolored the water. [Ben’s] repair process, which you can watch after the break, replaces the shaft and the impeller. He reused a plastic PC cooling fan as the new impeller. The replacement shaft is stainless steel, as is all of the mounting hardware that will be in contact with water. But for us, the most interesting part of the repair is his explanation of the shaft gasket and bearings. Two thrust bearings and two radial bearings ensure that the shaft cannot move axially, which would cause a problem with the gasket. He had intended to swap out the oil seal for an all Teflon seal but the machined acrylic wasn’t conducive to the part swap. Instead, he replaced it with the same type of gasket, but bolstered the new one with some silicone to stave off corrosion.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-gC3fbfka4&w=470] | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "444383",
"author": "Wizzard",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T16:26:19",
"content": "Why not use magnetic coupling?? Skip all the seals and such, use some strong magnets and a teflon bottom with a DIY (or extra-strong) stirrer bar.Ben, nice work again :) What’s this, number 5 or 6 on Hack-... | 1,760,377,098.688269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/guitar-pickup-winding-workstation/ | Guitar Pickup Winding Workstation | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"electric guitar",
"guitar",
"guitar pickup",
"pickup winder"
] | After a bit of inspiration, [Pete] decided to build a solid body electric guitar for himself. Instead of assembling a conglomeration of off-the-shelf parts, he plans on building just about everything from scratch. This includes the guitar pickups, so he built himself a
pickup winder
that has measures RPM, ETA until done, and auto stop for when the pickup is complete.
Electric guitar pickups are simple devices – just a magnet for each string wrapped in thousands of turns of wire about as thin as a human hair. [Pete] began his build with a cheap sewing machine and added a tachometer and pickup mount. As an added bonus, [Pete] threw in an ohmmeter to measure the coil resistance and a Gauss meter to measure the magnetic flux and polarity of the pole pieces. It’s a very nice build that’s designed to be as functional as commercial pickup winders.
[Pete] was originally inspired to build a pickup winder by the
Les Paul Google doodle
, and he plans on continuing Les Paul’s
tradition of guitar innovation
by building his own solid body guitar.
The wood has been cut
already, and we can’t wait to see the final product.
Check out a video of [Pete]’s coil winder in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhwhA7tNNbc&w=470] | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "444360",
"author": "default",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T15:30:30",
"content": "Very cool project. I look forward to seeing/hearing the final build. And it doesn’t have an arduino (yet)!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "444367",
... | 1,760,377,098.769773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/crazy-slingshot-guy-at-it-again-with-a-220-lb-steel-ball-cannon/ | Crazy Slingshot Guy At It Again With A 220 Lb Steel Ball Cannon | Mike Nathan | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"destruction",
"slingshot",
"weapon"
] | Good old [Jörg Sprave].
That guy
just doesn’t quit building insane slingshots.
If he’s not
honing his machete slinging skills
in preparation for the zombie apocalypse, he’s blowing out car windows with giant steel balls.
The huge cannon you see above is modeled off a small slingshot he made a while back, which fired 8mm steel bearings. In its larger form, the slingshot is said to be ten times the size of it’s smaller brother, firing 80mm steel balls with incredible force. In the video below, [Jörg] and his friends cart the slingshot out to a huge empty field where they run it through its paces on several different objects. Their first shot flies about 220 yards into a high tension tower, after which the boys aim their sights on an old car.
The power with which the slingshot fires is definitely impressive. With a few well-placed shots, the car is pretty much done for.
Now that we’ve seen [Jörg] fire off saw blades, machetes, and giant ball bearings, we can’t wait to see what comes next!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AySuafZ8to#!&w=470] | 23 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "444326",
"author": "Abbadon",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T14:25:46",
"content": "I only have one word for this… Awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "444327",
"author": "liebesiech",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T14:28:58",
... | 1,760,377,099.029353 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/engine-hacks-adding-fuel-injection-to-a-riding-lawnmower/ | Engine Hacks: Adding Fuel Injection To A Riding Lawnmower | Jack Buffington | [
"News"
] | [] | Are you tired of fiddling with the engines on your lawn equipment every spring, trying to get them to run again? [jhark] was and decided to do something about it by
converting his riding lawnmower
over to fuel injection. After stealing a fuel injector from his van and bolting it onto the mower’s carburetor, he sprinkled in a dash of Arduino magic. With a small amount of code tweaking he was ready to
roll
mow. You can find a schematic and his code if you follow the forum link to the second page.
For more fuel injection goodness, check out
this project
where [Steve] upgrades his Austin Healey to use the fuel injection system from a General Motors vehicle. This build log is pretty comprehensive and shows each element in the system, describes what it does, and shows where it should go. If you are a car nut, this is definitely one to check out.
Finally, if you are looking to really dig into the nuts and bolts of automotive fuel injection, take a look at the
Megasquirt fuel injection computer system
that allows you to finely tune things to your specific car and model. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "444299",
"author": "NATO",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T13:27:32",
"content": "FYI, you don’t need an MCU to do this. I graduated from an automotive engineering college, and in our fuel injection class, several students chose exactly this as their final project. Most of them used disc... | 1,760,377,098.820451 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/monitoring-water-levels-with-a-parallax-ping-sensor/ | Monitoring Water Levels With A Parallax Ping Sensor | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"parallax",
"ping",
"water sensor"
] | When you need
a mechanism to detect the water level within a container or tank
, you have several different options. Most people opt for a simple float or probe that sits in the water,
while others use optics
to sense when the water is reaching an undesired level.
This device built by [Danilo Abbasciano] uses a Parallax Ping sensor instead. If the sensor is placed at the top of a well, cistern, or other water container, it can accurately calculate the height and volume of the fluid inside. This is done by using the Ping’s readings in conjunction with a few values already known to the user, namely the dimensions of the container.
In his implementation, the readings are relayed to a simple LCD panel for easy viewing, and a small piezo speaker is used to sound an alarm when the water level reaches a predefined threshold. This sort of measuring device can be quite useful in situations where a contact-based sensor would be subject to chemicals and corrosion, or where contamination is a concern. | 18 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "444223",
"author": "David Dean",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T11:15:45",
"content": "I’ve got a neat spectra symbol magnetopot here that would be perfect for that. I got it for an application it wasn’t good for and still haven’t found a proper use for it. :/",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,377,099.170234 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/engine-hacks-the-kawaskai-voyager-v-12/ | Engine Hacks: The Kawaskai Voyager… V-12? | Jeremy Cook | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"engine",
"motorcycle",
"V-12"
] | Although a V-12 engine is always nice,
cramming one into a motorcycle
definitely qualifies as an engine hack! [Allen Millyard], wasn’t satisfied with the standard number of cylinders (6!) on his already gigantic Kawasaki KZ1300. Like any reasonable person, he decided to graft two of their powerplants together!
In true engine hacker form, inspiration struck at a classic bikes show when someone said “Suppose you’re going to make a V-12 next, then?” [Allen] replied that it would be impossible, but after this conversation, he reportedly had to build one. By the time the show ended he’d figured out how to do it. Lots of work and two six-cylinder engines later, [Allen] had proven this task to be possible.
Although this may seem like a very extreme motorcycle engine hack, [Allen] has done quite a few motorcycle engine mods, making v-twins out of a pair of single-cylinder engines and a V-eight from two four-cylinder engines. Check out the video of his latest beast after the break!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djJTQh_RMVQ&w=470&h=345%5D | 19 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "444882",
"author": "zikzak",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T13:10:07",
"content": "I see 10 of them, not 12.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "444887",
"author": "matt",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T13:21:16",
"content": "I am p... | 1,760,377,099.341505 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/31/addressing-microchips-open-source-problem/ | Addressing Microchip’s Open Source Problem | Mike Nathan | [
"News",
"Rants"
] | [
"chipkit",
"dangerous prototypes",
"microchip",
"open source",
"pic"
] | Hackaday alum and owner of Dangerous Prototypes [Ian Lesnet]
recently wrote an editorial piece
calling out Microchip on some of their less than friendly attitudes towards open source.
[Ian] and his company use PIC microcontrollers extensively in their projects, and they have quite a high opinion of their products overall. The gripe that he has (and thinks you should have too) is regarding Microchip’s approach to open source.
You see, Microchip invested in the Arduino IDE and released the chipKIT, a 32-bit Arduino compatible development board, along with big promises of “playing nice” with the open source community. The problem, according to [Ian], is that while Microchip’s compilers are based on GCC, they “keep some special sauce locked up”, which means that certain parts of the chipKIT toolchain are not open. Many in the community, including [Ian] had high hopes for the chipKIT based on the successes seen by Atmel’s open source initiatives, but many things are still locked up behind closed licenses.
An example of this unfriendly attitude towards open source can be seen in Digilent’s recently released network shield. It supports Ethernet and USB features of the chipKIT MEGA, but the TCP/IP and USB stacks are completely closed source. Digilent pushed hard to get the ability to release open drivers for the board, but it was a battle they ultimately lost. This behavior creates roadblocks for seasoned developers of open source products such as Dangerous Prototypes, as well as the curious beginner, which is why [Ian] is making a point in bringing these issues to light.
[Ian] urges Microchip to give something significant back to the community they are tapping, a result which can only be achieved by speaking up. Be sure to check out his editorial, and if after reading it you have any interest in letting your voice be heard, drop Microchip a line and let them know that their one-way relationship with the open source community is something you would like see change. | 77 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "444839",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-08-31T11:37:18",
"content": "It’s futile. Microchip does not care at all. it’s why I switched from Microchip Pics to atmel.Honestly, back the companies that are honest and publicly condemn the ones that act like asshats.Why is is... | 1,760,377,099.285903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/dustbin-computer-lets-you-clean-and-prototype-with-a-neato-xv-11/ | Dustbin Computer Lets You Clean And Prototype With A Neato XV-11 | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"chumby",
"infocast",
"insignia",
"Neato",
"XV-11"
] | So you bought yourself a Neato XV-11 and your floors have never been cleaner. The only problem is that you want to hack around with the hardware without losing your floor-sweeping minion. [Hash] found a solution to the issue by
building a computer inside of the dustbin module
.
You can see at the center of the image above a touchscreen. Normally this is just blank plastic, as it’s the removable container where your floor sweepings go, but [Hash] was inspired by the modular design. Since that bin is intended to be removable, it’s a perfect way to make add-on hardware removable. All he needed to do was find a way to connect to the Neato’s own electronics. The solution was a non-standard USB cable.
Using the guts from an Insignia Infocast 3.5 (he picked several of them up on clearance at Christmas) he milled an opening for the touch screen, added a cooling fan, and wired up a toggle switch (not pictured above) which powers everything from the 14-17V coming in from that USB cable. The Infocast is a Chumby with a different branding so there’s plenty of Linux-based power and it’s WiFi enabled. Watch [Hash’s] walk through video after the break to see all that went into this clever concept.
We haven’t seen too many hacks that make use of the Neato XV-11. [Hash] is the same guy who
hacked the Lidar on the unit
, but there must be others turning out impressive projects. Don’t hesitate to
send in a tip
if you know of one.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UH9Hqoyqk4*w=470] | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "444607",
"author": "Volkemon",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T23:56:46",
"content": "Um.. I thought it was 5v.. Guess I better click the #$^% link, eh?video down…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "444608",
"author": "Volkemon",
... | 1,760,377,099.072116 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/my-first-robot-a-simple-demo-to-get-kids-excited-about-robotics/ | My First Robot: A Simple Demo To Get Kids Excited About Robotics | Mike Nathan | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"balloons",
"lego",
"nxt",
"robot"
] | [Will] from Revolt Lab needed a project to get the summer campers he supervises interested in electronics, but when your audience is 5 years old, your subject matter
had better be simple, yet interesting enough
to hold their attention at length. He settled on using a Lego NXT robot to keep their little minds engaged, because who doesn’t like robots?
He picked up a basic Lego NXT kit and paged through the manual. The first “example” robot looked pretty cool so he decided to give it a shot, though he still hadn’t figured out exactly what he would have the robot do. Inspiration struck, and he decided that he could take advantage of the NXT’s color sensor as well as its proximity sensor to construct a balloon hunting robot.
He constructed a “balloon corral” to keep the balloons in place and the kids out of his thumbtack-wielding robot’s reach. He let his creation loose, and as you can see in the video below, the robot hunts down the blue balloon and pops it, much to the children’s delight.
If you’re in the position to introduce a group of young kids to electronics, this balloon popping robot paired with
some conductive Play Dough
would make for a fun and educational afternoon workshop.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc8OG4tPsH0&w=470] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "444577",
"author": "bzroom",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T22:58:33",
"content": "So jelly o tehe kid r get to baloon pop. POP! pofectamundo",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "444585",
"author": "R M",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T2... | 1,760,377,099.111922 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/knock-lock-with-logic-chips/ | Knock Lock With Logic Chips | Brian Benchoff | [
"lockpicking hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"knock lock",
"lock",
"logic chips"
] | [Eric] needed a project for his digital logic design class, and decided on
a lock that open in response to a specific pattern of knocks
. This is a fairly common project that we’ve
seen
a
few
builds
with ‘knock locks,’ but this one doesn’t use a microcontroller. Instead, it uses individual logic chips.
The lock senses the knocks with a piezo, just like every other build we’ve seen. Unlike the other builds, the knock pattern is then digitized and stored in an EEPROM. [Eric] only used 12 chip for this build, a feat he could accomplish with a few digital tricks, like making an inverter by tying one XOR input high.
We’ve seen a
555-based knock lock
before, but getting the timing right with that seems a little maddening. [Eric]’s build seems much more user-friendly, and has the added bonus of being programmed by knocking instead of turning potentiometers. Check out [Eric]’s knock lock after the break.
Edit: fixed the link.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvPfXka4dDY&w=470] | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "444525",
"author": "Bob D",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T21:20:39",
"content": "Please update your link to the project. The current link, she goes nowhere.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "444536",
"author": "zacdee316",
"tim... | 1,760,377,099.391302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/hunting-down-farmyard-pests-with-technology/ | Hunting Down Farmyard Pests With Technology | Mike Nathan | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"camcorder",
"hunting",
"night vision",
"rifle",
"scope"
] | [Snypercat] makes no bones about the fact that she despises rats, and
does everything in her power to keep them off her farm.
We can’t blame her though – they spread disease, eat other animals’ food, and can get your farm shut down if there are too many running about. While most of us might hire an exterminator or set out a ton of traps, she chooses to take a far more hands-on approach, hunting down each and every one of those little buggers with an air rifle.
If you’ve ever gone rat hunting in the dark (and who hasn’t?), you know that it can be difficult to aim in the dead of night. Night vision scopes can be expensive, but [Snypercat] shows how you can make your own scope that gives you the added benefit of recording your kills along the way. She happened to have a Sony camcorder with built-in night vision capabilities, and with a bit of tweaking she was able to mount it on her rifle’s scope. An IR flashlight was mounted on the rifle as well, giving her enhanced visibility without spooking her prey.
Be sure to check out the pair of videos below to see how [Snypercat] attached the camcorder to the scope, along with how well it works in the field.
[via
HackedGadgets
]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAGayGFY8VA&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFpPzlzfc1M&w=470] | 66 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "444488",
"author": "1000100 1000001 1010110 1000101",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T20:09:18",
"content": "A camera with a small viewfinder as opposed to a flip-out screen would be better, as the shooter won’t be illuminating their own face…the proof is in the pudding though.",
"pare... | 1,760,377,099.490854 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/30/diy-electron-accelerator/ | DIY Electron Accelerator | Kevin Dady | [
"HackIt",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"high voltage"
] | Reader [Xellers] sent in his newest instructable:
DIY Electron Accelerator: A Cathode Ray Tube in a Wine Bottle
. While not exactly what you might think of a cathode ray tube, the basics are in place. A wine bottle is used as a vacuum chamber and a 9kv neon transformer is attached to a stopped in the top. A cathode is placed mid way, the air is sucked out with a pump, and high voltage is applied.
Naturally as more air gets pumped out the electric arc intensifies into a pretty solid plasma filling the space between the two contacts. While mixing drilled glass with a vacuum and high voltage sounds like an awesome hospital story [Xellers] does cover some safety points including the possibility of this thing putting out some nasty waves.
One thing that is not mentioned (that I saw) is this is very similar to how florescent light tubes work and without florescent material lining the chamber it will spit out quite a bit of UV light (notice germicidal UV lights are clear). So you will want to watch your eyes!
Join us after the break for a quick video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHAYYMNiawE&feature=player_embedded&w=450] | 26 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "444459",
"author": "BiOzZ",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T19:18:49",
"content": "i can feel the x-rays from here XD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "444468",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T19:38:46",
... | 1,760,377,099.55433 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/speaker-mounted-wav-player-for-street-performances/ | Speaker-mounted WAV Player For Street Performances | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"lm386",
"sd card",
"speaker"
] | This naked speaker is the basis for [MaoMakMaa’s] newest
project called the Wavedrone
. He plans on using the autonomous and cable-less device during street performances. You can hear the effect of some stretched jazz cords being played on it in the video clip after the break. The sound is kind of an ethereal background noise that observers might not immediately realize is there.
You can see the 9V battery which serves as the power source clinging to the frame of the speaker. A 7805 linear regulator tames that battery and feeds the two IC’s on the circuit board seen to the right. The ATtiny85 is reading music from an SD card and playing it back in mono (obviously) with the help of an LM386 audio amplifier chip. The trimpots that go into the high pass and low pass filters in between the microcontroller and amplifier allow for a bit of sound manipulation, but we’re more impressed with the quality of the sound this is getting when properly trimmed.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQrElaWKNJo&w=470] | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "443963",
"author": "kak",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T22:21:38",
"content": "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "443965",
"author": "doubleup",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T22:24:48",
... | 1,760,377,099.611661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/chumby-controlled-mechanum-wheel-robot/ | Chumby Controlled Mechanum Wheel Robot | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"chumby",
"infocast",
"insignia",
"mechanum",
"wifi"
] | [Madox] gutted an
Insignia Infocast to use with this robot
. Insignia is Best Buy’s house brand and they partnered with Chumby to make their Infocast line. If you can find a used or clearance model it’s a great way to get yourself and embedded Linux board for a project like this one.
The body and wheels are 3D printed, with design files available at [Madox’s]
Thingiverse page
. The mechanum wheels work amazingly well, using seven bearings each for smooth operation. The body itself includes a holder for two groups of batteries. One of those battery packs powers the Chumby board while the other is used to power the four servo motors responsible for locomotion. To simplify the electronics [Madox] chose to use a USB servo drive which only set him back about $20.
We’re not sure what the USB dongle on top of the robot is used for. We’d guess it’s a WiFi adapter, since the machine sets up its own access point to act as a controller. But we thought Chumby boards had WiFi built-in. At any rate, check out the video after the break where you can see an Android phone driving the little bugger. There’s a flaw in the code that prevents side-to-side movement, it gets fixed after a video break at about 2:15 and everything is peachy after that.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSnTZzrXocM&w=470] | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "443930",
"author": "nomo",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T21:20:02",
"content": "I think the chumby comes with wi-fi, but Bunnie wrote in his blog that it is actually just an intern dongle.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "443931",
... | 1,760,377,099.664659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/eastons-animatronic-hand-gets-3d-printed-upgrade/ | [Easton’s] Animatronic Hand Gets 3D Printed Upgrade | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"makerbot",
"prosthetics",
"science fair"
] | [Easton] as been working with [Jeremy Blum] to come up with
the newest version of his animatronic hand
. You may remember seeing [Easton’s]
first animatronic hand
, with which he won his regional science fair and made a trip to nations. Since then he’s been working on improvements, and with access to [Jeremy’s] Makerbot he harnessed the power of open source design to make his own printed hand, extending
a different Thingiverse project
.
He’s still using the original sensor glove as a controller. It sends commands to the Arduino controlling the arm via an Xbee module. From there, five servos inside a fiberglass forearm move each finger and the thumb. The video clip after the break gives [Easton] a chance to show off all of the new design features, and finishes with a demonstration of the hand grasping different objects. We had a chance to chat with him briefly. He’s got big goals for himself, aiming to design a prosthetic arm for under $1000. That’s not a career goal… he’d like to get it done this year.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzLEB42pR5Y&w=470] | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "443904",
"author": "Jeremy Blum",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T20:16:37",
"content": "Go Easton! This is awesome :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "443912",
"author": "UltimateJim",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T20:35:40",
"... | 1,760,377,099.712621 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/got-an-ilight/ | Got An ILight? | Kevin Dady | [
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"iPhone backlight"
] | [KaRMaN] sent us a piece from his
blog on what to do with a busted iPhone
(google
translate
). As many iPhone owners have found out, it does not take that much of a fall to render your shiny hand-held command center into a pile of shattered glass. Replacement parts and insurance are available so life goes on, but what else can you do?
One thing you could do if your screen split apart like [KaRMaN]’s is remove the white LED back light strip from the device and reuse it. Once he removed the LED he had to repair a couple of traces but that is no big deal. Then the strip is probed to see how the individual LED’s are situated, in this case is 6 in series. The strip is hooked up to a 12v power source and now you have a small, but bright light for some midnight hacking. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "443852",
"author": "afex",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T18:48:24",
"content": "i’d like to know more about that add-on on the left side of his breadboard…anyone familiar with that? i’m assuming its some sort of power management board…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,377,099.930733 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/revolights-keep-you-safe-while-riding-at-night/ | Revolights Keep You Safe While Riding At Night | Mike Nathan | [
"LED Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"biking",
"led",
"transportation"
] | Bicycling at night can be a potentially hazardous endeavor for several reasons, but primarily because well, it’s dark. Inattentive drivers, weather, and other factors aside, the most important thing you can do to keep yourself safe is to ensure that you can see and that you are seen by others.
Revolights, an invention put together by [Kent Frankovich, Adam Pettler, and Jim Houk],
is an ingenious way of accomplishing both of those things.
The ring-shaped system attaches to nearly any bike tire, and includes LEDs that shine like a car’s head and taillights. A magnet attached to the bike’s fork triggers the onboard microcontroller to light only 4 LEDs at a time, letting persistence of vision take care of the rest.
We think it’s a great idea, and clearly others do as well. With nearly a month left on their Kickstarter page, they have nearly doubled their initial funding goal.
Check out the video presentation
on their Kickstarter page
to get a better look at the Revolights project.
[Thanks, medix] | 42 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "443801",
"author": "HackJack",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T17:31:43",
"content": "We all know it is an excuse.People put those on to mimic TRON.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "443814",
"author": "Chris",
"timesta... | 1,760,377,099.796716 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/mineable-minecraft-block/ | Mineable Minecraft Block | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"minecraft",
"processing",
"video projection"
] | At Hack A Day, we’re pretty big Minecraft fans so you can imagine our interest when we saw [Ben Purdy]’s
real-life Minecraft block
. The build uses a projector system to display a block onto a cardboard box and reacts to being ‘mined’ just like in the game.
Block animation is handled by a piezo sensor, an Arduino and a Processing sketch. From earlier posts on [Ben’s] blog, we’re going to guess that he used
the
keystone video projection library
his own solution to map the Minecraft block onto the cardboard box. Animation is handled just as in Minecraft – overlaying the breaking animation onto the block and adding some particle effects.
We’ve seen a few Minecraft hacks before, like
using it as a 3D design tool
, and
connecting your redstone CPU to the outside world
. [Ben]’s build follows in the tradition of its forebears and is something we
really
want to try out. Check out the demos after the break.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/28096608]
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/28098003]
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/28124800] | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "443745",
"author": "Ben Purdy",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T16:12:45",
"content": "Wow, I’m honored to be featured on here! Love your site.Just a note: It’s not the keystone library. The keystone library doesn’t properly compensate for perspective distortion so I ended up writing my... | 1,760,377,099.983207 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/a-cat-elevator-for-the-discerning-lazy-feline-in-your-life/ | A Cat Elevator, For The Discerning Lazy Feline In Your Life | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"cats",
"elevators",
"pets"
] | Ah, to live the life of a cat. The lazing about, the food delivered on demand, and the elevators –
oh the glorious elevators.
No you didn’t misread and we haven’t gone crazy. We were sent a link to the video below just the other day, and while it is nearly two years old, it was new to us. From the very brief description on YouTube, it looks as if the elevator senses the cat’s entry using infrared, locking the door behind the cat before transporting it to another level of the house. While it’s often implied that cats are incredibly lazy, this contraption definitely takes things above and beyond the norm.
It’s a pretty ridiculous system if you ask us, but it’s pretty compelling just the same. If you can find any more information on it, we’d love to hear about it in the comments. If you can’t, feel free to speculate as to how you would build a cat elevator, or elaborate on the crazy contraptions you’ve built for the lazy felines in your life.
[Thanks, Andreas] | 36 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "443714",
"author": "Thoriumbr",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T15:24:29",
"content": "I liked the idea, but I guess my cat wouldn’t. He is a little too afraid of noises and small locked places to even think about entering it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},... | 1,760,377,100.095641 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/mindflex-watches-as-you-judge-others-by-sight-alone/ | MindFlex Watches As You Judge Others By Sight Alone | Mike Nathan | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"mindflex",
"Teensy"
] | [Paul] really
wanted to know what his brain was thinking.
No, really. He is aware of all the thoughts that come and go, but he wanted to know what was going on in his brain below his conscious thought stream. Armed with a MindFlex headset and a Teensy, he set out to decode what really was going on inside his head.
He spent a month crawling 35 million Google profiles, downloading each user’s pictures into a MySQL database. The Teensy was attached to the MindFlex sensor board, and collects all of the headset’s output over a serial connection.
His experiment consisted of flashing each of the profile pictures on his monitor for one second, recording 2 of the 11 available brainwave channels from the MindFlex. These values were then plotted out so that he could visualize the “Attention” and “Meditation” values captured by the headset. At the end of the day he discovered, interestingly enough, that looking at dogs relaxed him the most!
We would love to see what correlations could be drawn from his collected data, and what sorts of “hidden” thoughts are coursing through others’ brains. It could certainly end up being a double-edged sword, uncovering subconscious biases and other such things, but it’s an incredibly intriguing experiment to say the least.
Be sure to check out the video below of the experiment in progress.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxb5eR7nbs&w=470] | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "443679",
"author": "Jorge",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T14:39:37",
"content": "Am i the only one creeped about the database of others profile pictures?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "443937",
"author": "Hydrox",
... | 1,760,377,100.028654 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/video-learning-eagle-cad-part-i-schematic-custom-parts/ | Video: Learning Eagle CAD Part I – Schematic & Custom Parts | Jack Buffington | [
"News"
] | [] | This week we are starting in on a series of videos that are pretty different from the past few. Most hackers go through a phase where they etch their own circuit boards. This lasts for a few projects until they need to use a surface mount part, need many circuit boards to be made, or just don’t have the time needed to do everything themselves. In this video [Jack] starts a multi-part series about how to use Eagle CAD, which is a program that allows you to design your own circuit boards that you can then send out to be manufactured. Eagle CAD has a free version of their software that fits just perfectly with a beginner’s budget. There are other free layout programs out there but this one is arguably the best. Eagle CAD has a steeper learning curve than others but has some pretty powerful features to justify the extra effort that you have to expend to get going with it.
This video starts showing the schematic and library portions of the program. We have also added several supplementary videos on our
YouTube channel
that explain some of the tools in the tool palette in greater detail. | 33 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "443657",
"author": "Fabio Varesano",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T14:15:41",
"content": "Still using EAGLE?!? I would have expected you guys to embrace and support free, libre and open source softwares such as KiCAD and gEDA which now offer similar, if not superior, features than Eagle.... | 1,760,377,100.558474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/announcing-the-next-theme-engine-hacks/ | Announcing The Next Theme: Engine Hacks | Jack Buffington | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"Engine hacks",
"new theme"
] | We had some interesting High Voltage posts over the past couple of weeks. Today we are announcing the next theme: Engine Hacks. Each day for the next two weeks we will be doing a new post about some sort of interesting engine project. We’ll be showing projects where engines are built from scratch, engines are modified to work in a new way, or where an engine is used in an manner that it wasn’t originally intended. If you or someone you know has an interesting project that you think might fit well within this category, please let us know through our
tip line
.
Pictured above is an
EVIC
(Electronic Valve Internal Combustion) engine. This type of engine doesn’t have a cam shaft to actuate the valves. Solenoids are used instead and are paired with a small processor and some sensors to determine when and how long to open the valves. This type of engine allows you to do things like vary the amount of fuel coming into the cylinder on a continually variable basis. If you paired this with electronic ignition, you could even make the engine run in reverse! | 40 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "443608",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T13:08:46",
"content": "fyi, would NOT recommend running a 2cycle engine in reverse! ;)Great idea overall, would the old conversion to run on kerosene by adding an additional head gasket trick qualify?",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,377,100.254189 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/29/run-unsigned-code-on-any-xbox/ | Run Unsigned Code On Any Xbox | Brian Benchoff | [
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"homebrew",
"unsigned code",
"xbox 360",
"xbox360"
] | A ton of people sent in the
latest development
on the Xbox homebrew front. A console hacker that goes by the name of [GliGli] released a new exploit that boots
any
Xbox into a
Linux loader
.
The hack requires some hardware – in this case an Xilinx CLPD. The hack works by sending a tiny reset pulse (no word on what ‘tiny’ means) that glitches the hardware and gets around the hash checks during boot. If that’s not technical enough for you, check out the
readme
on the
project’s github
.
This isn’t a silver bullet to cracking Xboxen wide open. The glitch only has about a 25% chance of success for each boot. The glitch also take a few minutes to boot into unsigned code. This being said, the hack works on all 360s, including the slim models that can’t be opened up with the JTAG method.
Check out the demo of one of the beta testers demonstrating the exploit after the break. Again, thanks to everyone for sending this one in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyYdL4L6vwE&w=470] | 30 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "443558",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-08-29T11:17:27",
"content": "To get execution they have to setup a page with encryption+no-execute+cache-hashing disabled, this means modifying calls to HV which is the only thing that can modify page tables.x360 is far more complex t... | 1,760,377,100.175437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/28/basic-programming-on-an-arduino/ | BASIC Programming On An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"basic",
"basic interpreter",
"c++",
"tiny BASIC"
] | [Mike] sent in a project he’s been working on – a
port of a BASIC interpreter
that fits on an Arduino. The code is meant to be a faithful port of
Tiny BASIC for the 68000
, and true to Tiny BASIC form, it fits in the very limited RAM of the Arduino.
True to Tiny BASIC’s assembler roots, [Mike]’s C port makes extensive use of the “infinitely-abusable” goto statement.
Kernighan and Ritchie
said themselves, “code involving a goto can alway be written without one” but [Mike] found that using goto left a lot more room available for BASIC code. The BASIC interpreter eats up around 600 bytes in the Arduino RAM, leaving about 1.4 kB for BASIC code. Not much, but more than the lowest-end
BASIC Stamp
.
[Mike] says he started this project to see how ‘old bearded ones’ conjured up so many impressive programs with a few kB of RAM. Tiny BASIC was originally conceived for the
Altair 8800
that shipped with 256
bytes
of RAM stock, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Right now, all we know is we’ll be spending the weekend digging through our copies of
Dr. Dobb’s Journal
. | 96 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "443346",
"author": "SparkyGSX",
"timestamp": "2011-08-28T22:18:29",
"content": "Nice effort, but I doubt it would be useful for anything semi-serious. The interpreter probably adds a very significant overhead mostly in CPU cycles, but also quite a lot in precious RAM and ROM space. ... | 1,760,377,100.45072 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/28/build-a-clock-using-dials-instead-of-hands/ | Build A Clock Using Dials Instead Of Hands | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"dial"
] | [Doug Paradis] found a simple way to
use dials instead of hands on a clock
. Actually, that’s pretty much the entire hack… use dials instead of hands. He grabbed a battery-operated clock movement from the hobby store, then printed out one dial for hours, another for minutes, robert’s your mother’s brother, and you’ve got a new clock. The case seen above is laser cut, with a window and index line that helps you read the time precisely.
But instead of building a case, we’d like to try this with some retro equipment. The first thing that pops to mind is to replace the disks on a broken strobotuner, like
the big-dialed model that Conn used to make
. If you’re not down with the bulky music hardware-turned-clock perhaps there’s an old multi-meter, or a panel gauge that can be repurposed for this. We know [Doug] already
has some needle meters
sitting around that would be perfect for this. | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "443261",
"author": "sprky0",
"timestamp": "2011-08-28T19:13:14",
"content": "This same concept was “popular” – or at least somewhat popular around the 70s with wrist watches. They’re called jump watches — predate LED displays by a couple of years.This is a really nice build! I lov... | 1,760,377,100.318345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/28/the-alarmtock-a-chumby-hacker-board-alarm-clock/ | The “AlarmTock”, A Chumby Hacker Board Alarm Clock | Jeremy Cook | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"alarm clock",
"AlarmTock",
"radio"
] | [Thomas] wrote in to tell us about his latest project, the
“AlarmTock”.
Like many hacks, this was inspired by some outdated hardware, a radio alarm clock from 1992.
After finally getting fed up with his old alarm clock, [Thomas’] wife purchased him a new one for around $10 from a local retail store. Although most likely an improvement, [Thomas] wondered why after so many years he still had to listen to either an annoying “beep” sound or whatever song the DJ on the radio decided to play.
In true hacker form, he decided to do something about it. [Thomas] crammed a
[Chumby Hacker Board]
, which has much of the same hardware as the
[Chumby One]
device, into his clock radio. RSS-driven text-to-speech was used to tell him exactly what he wanted to know every morning. A sample
.wav
file is provided as well as the python script used to execute his morning wakeup routine. For another fun hack from [Thomas] check out his
Google treadmill hack
here! | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "443223",
"author": "tehsusenoh",
"timestamp": "2011-08-28T17:26:42",
"content": "Interesting! I used to have that exact wireless card a few years ago. I can’t seem to find it now…I had to have a fan blowing on it to keep it from overheating, so I hope his version won’t have those i... | 1,760,377,100.493403 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/28/diy-segway-fast-silent-and-open/ | DIY Segway: Fast, Silent, And Open | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"atmega644",
"gyroscope",
"pid",
"segway"
] | This is a picture of the guts of
a diy Segway project
(
translated
). Everything fits into a tiny space under the platform upon which the rider stands. It’s tight, but makes for a sleek look when the diamond plate is covering up all of the internals.
An ATmega644 controls the vehicle. It does so by using a PID control scheme to monitor a gyroscope, driving the wheels to maintain the center of balance. Electronically, the most complicated part of the build is the motor controller. It seems to be an original design, using an ATmega48 and several other integrated circuits. It was hard for us to figure out how this was implemented, but with some intensive study of the three schematics that go into the module we’d bet you can get to the bottom of things. We certainly like the outcome, as this personal transport is whisper quiet. Take a look at the clip after the break to hear for yourself.
Note:
Be careful if you’re reusing the code from the translated link at the top. Google translator also translates the variable names in the code and might break how it works due to inconsistencies in the translation.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAuZ9zhxNV8&w=470]
[Thanks Daniel] | 35 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "443187",
"author": "meatman",
"timestamp": "2011-08-28T15:38:14",
"content": "Now increase the range on one charge to 40 miles and he has a winner!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "443191",
"author": "max",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,377,100.632057 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/28/high-voltage-hacks-finale-do-not-try-this-under-any-circumstances/ | High Voltage Hacks Finale: Do Not Try This Under Any Circumstances | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"high voltage"
] | Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen some pretty crazy and potentially dangerous stuff, like a
stun glove
and
modern day alchemy
. For our
high voltage theme
finale, we couldn’t pass up [Photonicinduction]’s YouTube channel.
Best known for his
self-destructing washing machine
(the source of
this animated .gif
), [Photonicinduction] is also the brainchild behind the
hair dryer flame thrower
and his homemade
fifty thousand amp transformer
.
While we do like his
Not Safe For Work ammeter
(yes, it really is NSFW), some of [Photonicinduction]’s videos – charging a car battery
in 4 minutes
, making a kettle boil
without a heater element
, pressurizing coconuts
to over 200 psi
, and
exploding rabbits
– are hilariously dangerous and should not be attempted by anyone.
We need to say
you should not attempt to emulate [Photonicinduction]’s hijinks under any circumstances
. Cleaning up a puddle of burning gasoline
with a vacuum cleaner
may sound like fun, but copying [Photonicinduction] will eventually get you killed. This man must know his stuff, because we’re honestly shocked he hasn’t exploded yet. The best way to enjoy
three hundred thousand volts
is probably grabbing a coffee and watching [Photonicinduction]’s
YouTube channel
. | 31 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "443132",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2011-08-28T13:01:04",
"content": "Great gif.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "443136",
"author": "BoKu",
"timestamp": "2011-08-28T13:06:43",
"content": "I love this guys videos,... | 1,760,377,100.740173 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/27/chumby-transplant-and-hardware-upgrade-used-with-dslr-and-wft/ | Chumby Transplant And Hardware Upgrade Used With DSLR And WFT | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"Chumby One",
"wireless file transfer"
] | The Chumby One comes in a nice little case and features an ARM powered board with a touchscreen interface. [Bobby] thought is was a good starting point, but wanted a more portable version to
use as a wireless file transfer device
for photography. WFT is a connectivity enhancement for digital cameras that allows pictures to be pushed to other devices over a wireless network.
In order to improve the portability of the hardware [Bobby] ditched the power-hungry WiFi adapter that comes with the device. The newer and more efficient USB dongle that he’s using as a replacement makes switching to a rechargeable camera battery a viable option. With the battery and dongle soldered to the board he ditched the rest of the hardware (save the touchscreen) and began work on his own enclosure. You can see the version above is just a little rough around the edges, he
cut it by hand
from the Google Sketchup design. But since he plans to make a few more copies of this hardware for friends he will probably use a service to laser cut those cases for him.
The new hardware needs drivers, and [Bobby] has lots of instructions on how to compile your own. This includes setting up the toolchain, compiling the kernel, as well as building the drivers themselves. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "442931",
"author": "BiOzZ",
"timestamp": "2011-08-28T00:29:14",
"content": "i use the wireless nikon unit for most studio shoots … its not that good alone XDi wish there was a commercial version of this!when i transplant things that cost over $100 a tend to break them XD",
"pare... | 1,760,377,100.673226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/27/more-pov-fan-message-hacking/ | More POV Fan Message Hacking | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"eeprom",
"fan",
"POV"
] | [Zach’s] company is all about the safety and to reinforce those ideals they handed out POV display fans to each employee. “Being Safe is Cool”, get it? Gimmicky… yes, but now [Zach’s] got
a tiny little POV fan to hack
. Although he may not have known it, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this hardware. These fans were handed out as a promotion at Black Hat a couple of years ago and prompted
some reverse engineering action
. The message is stored on an EEPROM and there’s even a female programming header that makes it easy to write reflash it with your own messages if you know how to craft the data.
This is where the two products diverge. The older project uses a serial connection and PonyProg to dump and data. [Zach] first tried using his Bus Pirate to dump the data but after having no success he grabbed his Arduino and managed to get the job done. Once the message encoding protocol was worked out, he wrote a sketch to flash the EEPROM. So if you can get your hands on one of these the work has already been done. See [Zach’s] custom messages in the video after the break.
But we’d like to see this taken to the next level. How about a wall-mounted device that waits for something, like an incoming email or tweet, then spins up the fan to display it?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL-aNIXz5_w&w=470] | 25 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "442874",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2011-08-27T22:31:25",
"content": "Its not a flame when you’re are both accurate and polite, I sadly have to agree this is sub standard reporting :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "442879... | 1,760,377,100.88242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/27/converting-a-lame-tron-toy-into-a-cool-halloween-costume-prop/ | Converting A Lame Tron Toy Into A Cool Halloween Costume Prop | Mike Nathan | [
"LED Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega 328",
"leds",
"tron"
] | Instructable user [cubeberg’s] daughter saw Tron:Legacy earlier this year and decided right then and there that she wanted to dress up as Quorra for Halloween. Being the awesome dad he is,
he decided to make her costume himself
, and hit the stores in search of an Identity Disc to complete the look.
The toy was pretty underwhelming, and lacked the lighting that a proper Tron prop should have. He figured he had the skills to make it a bit better, so he gathered some tools, a bunch of LEDs, and set off for his workshop. He gutted the disc, cutting out any extraneous bits of plastic he could find. He wired up 64 LEDs between the disc’s inner and outer ring, which he controls using an ATmega 328 paired with a Max7221 display driver.
He doesn’t show any pictures of what the toy looked like beforehand, but the final product looks great. We bet that his daughter is pretty pumped for Halloween to roll around – we know we would be.
Continue reading to see a quick video demo of his souped up Identity Disc in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZnyQM5xJAY&w=470] | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "442818",
"author": "Jeremiah",
"timestamp": "2011-08-27T19:18:53",
"content": "Nothing impresses me more than a man that wants to spend quality time with his daughters. As a man with two daughters, I can appreciate just how awesome daughters are. Too few don’t. :(He could have ju... | 1,760,377,100.931392 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/27/vowel-recognition-using-an-atmega644/ | Vowel Recognition Using An ATmega644 | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"atmega644",
"fast walsh transform",
"voice recognition",
"vowel"
] | [Youchun Zhang] and [Annie (Wei) Dai] found a way to
differentiate vowel sounds using an ATmega644
as their final project for a microcontroller design class. Voice recognition is not out of the ordinary, but most of the time it uses a computer, smart phone, or specially designed hardware. This implementation uses an ATmega644, a microphone connected via an op-amp, and a few buttons. In the demonstration after the break you’ll see that they’re outputting status data to Putty via an RS232 connection, but that’s just so you can see what’s going on inside the chip. It’s what’s doing all of the hard work.
In order to tell the difference between vowels, the waveforms of each sound were analyzed using MATLAB during the research phase. That analysis allowed the team to assemble data for each sound that contained the peaks least often found in the other sounds. Now the microcontroller analyzes incoming sound, comparing it to that data set. The analysis is snappy, happening in real-time thanks to the team’s use of the
Fast Walsh Transform
. It turns the sound into a set of square waves and presents them as a 64 bit sample. The result can be used as a password protection scheme, but as far as we can tell this doesn’t key to just one person, anyone who knows the vowels of the password can use it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLE5DEedxaY&w=470] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "442788",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-08-27T17:51:45",
"content": "Wow, compressing spoken vowels into 64-bits and still being able to make sense of it? I would have thought you’d need at least 1k for that kind of processing. GOY (good on you)",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,377,100.971027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/27/weekly-roundup-8272011/ | Weekly Roundup 8/27/2011 | Jack Buffington | [
"Weekly Roundup"
] | [
"weekly roundup"
] | In case you missed them, here are our biggest posts from the past week.
For the weapons enthusiasts in our audience, make sure to check out our most popular post this week where [Liquider] shows a project in which
an airsoft pistol was converted into a coil gun
.
Our next most popular post
was based around an xkcd comic where the concept of viewing clouds in 3D is explored using a pair of webcams. This post had lots of comments and also spawned a
forum topic
.
Next up is a post about a reward that has been place on the head of
porting Android to run on a HP Touchpad
. The bounty for all of the various challenges was originally $1500 but now sits at $2275!
This isn’t our normal fare since we usually don’t cover hacking that could be malicious. This post describes some of the exploits
covered recently at Black Hat and Defcon
.
Finishing up the pack is our own video where [Jack] shows
how to build a stun glove
and proves that it works by taking a jolt from it himself. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,377,101.011071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/evalbot-os-set-free/ | Evalbot OS Set Free | Kevin Dady | [
"HackIt"
] | [
"evalbot"
] | [Theo] tipped us off about something that every TI Evalbot owner may be interested in, the
The manual and source code for the uC/OS-III kernel is now available for download
. UC/OS-III is what came with the evalbot, and it is a realtime operating system for that and many other chips. The problem with it for most hobby level people is that just the manual was 100$, and unless you already knew something about the system it did not sound very attractive.
But now micrium, the author of US/OS-III, has released the source code free to use in non commercial applications, and manuals for every chip supported it may drum up some more interest in this neat little RTOS. Though it does require a subscriber login.
Excerpt:
Dear Subscriber,
The ideal scenario for developers wishing to evaluate embedded software is to be granted easy access to the software’s full source code. In the case of Micriµm’s celebrated real-time kernel, µC/OS-III, this ideal has become reality. Last week, Micriµm announced a new policy for µC/OS-III: the kernel is now “source available.” µC/OS-III’s incomparably clean source code, as well as PDFs of the popular books describing the kernel, can be downloaded from Micriµm’s Web site at no cost, giving developers a refreshingly fast and simple means of beginning an evaluation | 31 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "441604",
"author": "zogzog",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T18:12:02",
"content": "Cool, just need some free evalbot now ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "441609",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T18:23:56",
... | 1,760,377,101.084066 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/burning-man-pirate-ship-sports-arduino-powered-flame-sails/ | Burning Man: Pirate Ship Sports Arduino Powered Flame Sails | Jesse Congdon | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"burning man",
"burningman",
"fire cannons",
"propane",
"sequencer",
"solenoids",
"Teensy"
] | The 2011 Burning Man festival starts in just a few short days, and with that we have an excellent mutant vehicle accessory that no insane desert dweller should be without. An Arduino powered
fire cannon sequencer
! [Paul] was asked by Lostmachine’s [Andy] to spice up the flame effects on their
Priate Ship
mutant vehicle and provide a cool looking fire show that represented the ship’s sails.
[Paul] tossed together a hand full of arcade buttons, switches, and an LCD display to control eight 12V Solenoid valves tasked with switching on various regulated propane sources that throw some brutal looking flame effects. The controller combines a Teensy 2.0 with a custom board that contains eight P-channel MOSFET circuits. Flyback from the coils is handled through zener diodes, and the IRFR5305s are sized quite above and beyond what is needed for the 12v solenoids. With the heat, dust, and chaos of the desert one can’t be too careful. [Paul] even tosses in RC snubber circuits just to prevent things from getting too out of hand. Of the twelve arcade buttons eight are used for manual over rides, and the remaining four arcade buttons, knobs, switches, and the LCD display are all connected to the Teensy to handle the sequencing. [Paul], sadly, will not be able to make it out to Burning Man to troubleshoot the sequencer, which is a cause for some concern throughout the build.
It just so happens that I leave for Burning Man this Friday, and have an 18″ by 18″
Hackaday QR Code
that will mark my area, see if you can find me out there! Also check out a video of the sequencer controlling what is easily a 6 foot flame bar after the jump!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t2C4wwPY2to&w=470] | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "441565",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T17:05:01",
"content": "“Priate Ship”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "441568",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T17:09:35",
"content": "agree... | 1,760,377,101.133889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/counting-box-also-saves-calculators-from-small-children/ | “Counting Box” Also Saves Calculators From Small Children | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"calculator",
"counting box",
"ponoko",
"toy"
] | [Nathan]’s son really loves numbers and counting, and one of his favorite things to do is add 1 to a calculator over and over again. Being the awesome dad that he is, [Nathan] built his son
a counting box
that has a 10-digit rotary switch and two arcade buttons to add and subtract.
One goal of the project was to have the counting box retain memory of the display while being powered off. The easiest way to do this is to write the display data to the ATmega’s EEPROM. This EEPROM is only rated for 100,000 write cycles (although in practice
it’s much higher
), so [Nathan] included a 24LC256 in a little spasm of over-engineering. All the electronics are laid out on perf board, and the case is constructed from bamboo that was laser cut by
Ponoko
. The quality of the case itself is fairly remarkable – we’re really impressed with the finish and the magnetic battery access door.
From experience, we know that playing with an
HP-15C
eventually leads to a broken calculator and having our Nintendo taken away. We’re really happy for [Nathan]’s son, and wish we had our own counting box at his age. | 27 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "441548",
"author": "tz",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T16:31:39",
"content": "The Atmel can use micro- or nano- amps when not doing something – if the switch only controlled the display’s power, a coin cell could keep the state until the child was ready for college. Probably longer if i... | 1,760,377,101.239019 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/controlling-dioder-light-strips-wirelessly/ | Controlling Dioder Light Strips Wirelessly | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"dioder",
"led",
"lighting",
"wireless",
"xbee"
] | [SeBsZ] does a lot of work in home automation, using Xbee modules, LEDs, and other home lighting systems. Naturally, people look to him for help with different electronics projects, but one thing he has been asked time and time again is if he can make a simple
mood lighting solution that can be easily installed.
He has always been interested in playing around with RGB LEDs, but he wasn’t looking to reinvent the wheel with this project. Instead he based his work off the Ikea Dioder product, an off-the-shelf set of adjustable LED strips.
As we’ve seen before
, the control module for these LEDs
leaves a bit to be desired
, so he removed the Dioder’s onboard PIC and wired up a controller of his own. His “Universal IO Board” uses an Atmega88 for control and has all the pins required to attach an Xbee wireless module. With everything wired up, he now has full wireless control of the Dioder light strips, without a ton of fuss.
Although he’s selling a few different hardware kits, the schematics for his IO board are freely available on his site, should you want to make your own. The only thing that we didn’t see was the code for the Atmega, but we’re guessing he has that posted somewhere as well. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "441931",
"author": "Gilliam",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T04:56:40",
"content": "The Dioder strips and rings are great stuff. I have some installed in my car. 2 white strips replacing the map lights; and all 4 color changing rings in the gauges.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,377,101.171295 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/a-design-contest-with-high-odds-of-winning/ | A Design Contest With High Odds Of Winning! | Jeremy Cook | [
"contests",
"News"
] | [
"AvnetExpress",
"contest",
"video"
] | [John] wrote in to tell us about
this contest
hosted by Avnet. All one has to do is upload a video of their design to Avnet’s Youtube page. There are four categories to choose from including: Solar, Communications, Transportation, and Entertainment. Four contestants can win an iPad2.
The only catch, if you can call it that, is that one would have to use at least one component from their “more than five million SKUs available.” The thing that makes this contest more interesting than it usually would be is that there appears to be no contest entries as of August 24th. Official rules can be found on their site
here
.
The contest runs through the end of August, so there isn’t a lot of time to get a design together. However, it’s possible that you have something already built that fits into their
product catalog
. Make a 30-90 second video of it in action and you’ve got a (very good apparently) chance of winning an iPad2! Check out the contest video after the break.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUd7UZiK6dg&w=470&h=345%5D
via
[Hackersbench.com] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "441500",
"author": "steve",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T14:24:17",
"content": "Do I get this right: I buy (or claim to have bought) an Atmel ATMega 88 from their site and subsequently I can enter the submission? Is this correct?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,377,101.294009 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/all-about-electroluminescence/ | High Voltage Hacks: All About Electroluminescence | Jeremy Cook | [
"how-to",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"el",
"electroluminescence",
"electroluminescent",
"high voltage"
] | Although many might not know it,
electroluminescent
materials use high voltage, and thus qualify for our featured topic. Many may assume that these sheets work in the same way as LED lights, using low-voltage DC power. This, however, is not the case, as they need around 100 volts of AC current to allow them to light up.
For a battery-powered solution, this means converting the battery’s DC power to AC.
Adafruit
has a good tutorial about working with EL wire and powering it up using a portable inverter. One should obviously be careful to properly insulate any clothing using this material as being shocked is generally not fun.
The video after the break is pretty long, but is well produced and will give you a good background of EL use. If you don’t have 30 minutes to dedicate to this, be sure to at least skip to 2:43 to see one of the coolest EL shirts we’ve seen.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QfV-ygFL_M&w=470&h=345%5D
For another related hack, check out
this one
by [Jeri Ellsworth] about making EL ink. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "441447",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T13:16:26",
"content": "100 volts of AC _current_?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "441473",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T13:41:09",
"conten... | 1,760,377,101.466454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/vintage-phone-has-a-dirty-android-secret/ | Vintage Phone Has A Dirty Android Secret | Mike Nathan | [
"News"
] | [
"android",
"bluetooth",
"phone",
"vintage"
] | Instructables user [apple_fan] likes vintage telephones from the early 1900s, but while they are nice to look at, they’re clearly not too useful nowadays. He decided to change that,
and retrofitted an old operator-dialed telephone with some modern amenities.
He gutted the phone, stripping out the large electromagnets and capacitor that were once used to facilitate placing and receiving calls. He added an Archos 28 tablet to the box, wiring it an IOIO board, allowing him to interface it with his Android phone. The old microphone and speaker were swapped out for updated components, and a new ringer actuator was built to replace the bulky old unit. The tablet and ringer, along with the rest of the components were then carefully hidden away inside the box as not to alter the aesthetics.
To place and receive calls, he installed CMU Sphinx on the Archos tablet, allowing him to interact with the phone using voice recognition, as if he was talking to a live operator.
It’s a pretty neat project, and while we might have opted for a small micro combined with a Bluetooth headset, [apple_fan] makes it clear why he made the hardware decisions he did. We’re always up for letting people show us a different way to get a job done, so we’re down with that.
Check out a short video demo of the phone in action after the jump.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuUQQJHx-vg&w=470] | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "441485",
"author": "OldMacBoi",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T14:02:45",
"content": "Nece supeedeers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "441486",
"author": "peter",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T14:03:03",
"content": "oh man, i w... | 1,760,377,101.565051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/wireless-fiber-optic-mood-lighting/ | Wireless Fiber Optic Mood Lighting | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"fiber optic",
"led",
"wireless"
] | There’s something calming about looking up into the night sky and seeing an array of shining stars off in the distance. [Marou] is a big fan of stargazing, but sometimes conditions are not optimal,
so he decided to bring the stars inside
.
His idea was to build a ceiling lamp that didn’t bask the room with light, but rather one that reproduced the peaceful twinkle of the night sky. He covered a wooden table with dark fabric and drilled a ton of tiny holes into the surface. He fitted the holes in the table with two big bundles of optical fibers since one bundle couldn’t quite cover the entire thing.
To light the cables, he built a pair of 4-LED illuminators, which contain red, blue, green, and white LEDs. Each light source is controlled via an Arduino which takes its direction from [Marou’s] infrared remote.
While the idea isn’t new, the implementation is pretty cool. At first we were expecting a small lamp, but anchoring an entire table to the ceiling as a light panel is definitely something we hadn’t seen before.
If you want to build something similar in your own living room, [Marou’s] Arduino code is free for the taking. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "442155",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T15:19:32",
"content": "All fiberoptics are wireless.. They are however not fiberless…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "442159",
"author": "Mike Nathan",
"... | 1,760,377,103.325406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/dev-board-from-an-avr-programmer/ | Dev Board From An AVR Programmer | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"AVR",
"dev board",
"programmer",
"usbasp"
] | [jethomson] sent in a build he’s been working on that turns an inexpensive AVR programmer into a development board.
The build
is based on the very affordable USBasp programmer that’s based on an ATmega8. With hundreds of these boards
available from China
for less than a Hamilton, we’re wondering how soon it will be before we see these boards end up in other projects.
After fiddling with the AVR fuse settings, [jethomson] managed to burn some code to the microcontroller. After that, all that was required to upload software to the programmer is a bit of solder, a push button, and an external programmer. [jethomson] also managed to make this little AVR programmer compatible with the Arduino environment with a small addition to the boards.txt file.
[jethomson] included a few bits of software as an example – he ported the
haunted USB cable
and adapted the
USB business card
to print out, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Nice work, and we can’t wait to see it in future projects. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "442122",
"author": "Beat707",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T14:10:33",
"content": "Oh, that sounds very interesting!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "442125",
"author": "Niko Delarich",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T14:14:31",
... | 1,760,377,103.162224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/high-voltage-hacks-a-1000-watt-tube-amp/ | High Voltage Hacks: A 1000 Watt Tube Amp | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"amplifier",
"high voltage",
"tube amp",
"tubes"
] | Normally when we hear of a Champ guitar amp, we think of a
sweet-sounding rig
that puts out 6 Watts through an 8-inch speaker. [John Chambers] of Champ Electronics wanted to build a true champion for the field of battle and came up with
The Champ 1000 Watt Tube Amp
, an amplifier that probably puts out enough heat to keep an igloo warm.
The amp is based on 807 valves. With some clever engineering [John] managed to coax 100 watts out of a pair of 807s, so the entire amp “only” requires 20 power tubes. The build log shows some pretty impressive examples of electrical prowess. We can’t recall the last time we featured a build with point-to-point wiring on tagboard, and [John]’s work is some of the best we’ve ever seen.
[John] has been working on this amp off and on for a few years now, but he should be wrapping up the build sometime soon. We haven’t seen this amp in action, but we imagine it would look something like
this
36×10 monstrosity. Send us a message or post a comment if you can find a video and we’ll put it up. | 26 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "442108",
"author": "Blake",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T13:30:36",
"content": "Igloos are already warm, because snow is a great insulator.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "442118",
"author": "DanJ",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T... | 1,760,377,103.228633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/raspberry-pi-might-not-be-vaporware/ | Raspberry Pi Might Not Be Vaporware | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"News"
] | [
"raspberry pi"
] | When we
first covered
the Raspberry Pi, we secretly wondered if the project might become vaporware. It looks like the tiny, full-fledged computer might actually be produced with the announcement of
alpha boards
in the Raspberry Pi HQ.
In the
announcement of the Raspberry Pi
last May, the board was about the size of a USB thumb drive and would cost $25. It looks like the board will be a little larger in the final revision – about the size of a business card – and production of the alpha boards were a bit over cost. That being said, these boards seem a lot more capable than what we’ve seen before. The Raspberry Pi now has 10/100 ethernet, and analog audio and video while keeping the HDMI, USB, and SD card support we saw in the original.
The Raspberry Pi team already has Debian running on these boards, so right now we’re wondering when
gumstix boards
will come down in price. Of course, this project is intended for use in education, but we can’t wait to see what can be done with this hardware. If you already know what you would do with this, tell us in the comments. | 73 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "442043",
"author": "CampGareth",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T11:10:22",
"content": "The alpha boards are a little over cost due to being 20% bigger than the final boards and including all sorts of extra headers that won’t need to be on the final board. According to the RasPi site the f... | 1,760,377,103.51716 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/large-7-segment-display-made-from-glue/ | Large 7 Segment Display Made From Glue | Kevin Dady | [
"LED Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"glue stick",
"seven segment"
] | We here at Hack A Day love LED’s, and all things LED related, but one of the biggest problems with LED’s are the small size. We want bigger and brighter, matrices the size of our TV, seven segments as big as a wall and a single white led the size of a baseball, and brighter than the sun!
I was recently commissioned to make a device which uses a pretty large number display, and I went out shopping. The seven segment we liked best was still quite pricey, and would not fit our enclosure correctly anyway. We ended up going a different route, but it really got me thinking… What if you wanted to make something with a fairly large display? And how could one go about doing it cheaply at home?
I first thought about acrylic rods, but no one near me had any of small diameter, or at a decent price. Never mind that I don’t have that many tools on hand, and I could just see me trying to drill out the end of a thin plastic rod using a electric hand drill, and my knees as a clamp. Looking around the HQ I found my stash of glue-sticks. I thought would make an interesting display and it is easy to work with.
Before I knew it I had a working (serial and expandable) 9 inch tall 6 inch wide 7 segment display. I will be the fist to admit, its not spectacular in quality, or brightness, though the display itself did only cost four dollars in material. A quick and easy project, especially if you need a quick scoreboard or large clock.
Join us after the break to see how the display and the controller circuit are made.
Supplies:
14 LEDs, as bright as you can get without generating heat. I am using 3mm Amber LED’s that run at 30 milliamp each, and are pretty bright. The glue-sticks will absorb a lot of light, which is a bummer.
7 Hot melt glue-sticks, big enough that your LEDs can stick in each end, pointing to middle. You will also use a lot of hot glue so keep some extra around.
7 NPN transistors, I am using 2222’s
7 1k ohm resistors
7 22 ohm resistors, this is for my LED’s and is letting 30 milliamp of current pass though 2 LEDs in series,
use an online led calculator
to get the correct value for your LEDs
1 74HC595 Shift Register
Electrical Tape
Cellophane Tape
Something to mount the display on. In my case some quickly painted cardboard.
Thin Wire (lots)
Perforated circuit board
Solder
Tools:
Soldering Iron
Hot Glue Gun
Wire Wrap tool (makes life easier but not required)
Wire cutters
Helping Hands
Utility Knife
Awl (a tool for piercing holes)
Marker
Making the Display:
In my opinion the most tedious part is wiring up the LED’s. I connected a loop of wirewrap wire to each lead of each LED and soldered. The wirewrap tool makes this an easy process but if you do not have one do not worry. Just get some wire from a ribbon cable and strip a little off the end, tin the end of the wire with some solder, and get a small amount of solder to stick to your component lead.
Once the two ends are tinned its just a matter of melting the 2 together. I find that using tweezers really helps. You want about 4-5 inches of wire running off of each LED lead. This will give you more than enough slack to work with later on. Once you have 28 wires soldered to 14 LEDs you can set them aside for now and start heating up the glue gun.
I want the LED’s to be inside each end of the glue-sticks pointing to the middle. Originally I thought I could use a drill bit and by hand bore out a little divot in to the ends of the glue-sticks. This worked really well for the first couple holes, but it was not long before the drill bit was doing more melting than cutting. I also learned that freezing a glue stick, even for a little bit, makes it really brittle.
It finally dawned on me that I was working with glue-sticks, and that it would just be easier to use the nozzle of the glue gun to make the divot, then quickly bury the LED before the glue set back up. When using the hot glue nozzle, you do not need to go down very far or else it might blow out the side of the glue stick your trying to work with. If you do mess up, its just glue-sticks, they can be easily fixed with hot glue. I managed to mess each and every single one of these up in a special way and they all came out about equal.
After the sticks cool down I wrapped the ends in electrical tape, this does a few things: first it keeps light from leaking out of the ends, second it is wrapped around where the LED’s are to prevent a bright spot on each end, and Third it helps me even up the visible segment sections. After you get all the glue-stick LED tubes taped up its a good Idea to test each led to ensure you did not accidentally break a wire or short something out while twisting up that tape. I used a 9 volt battery with a 500ohm resistor in series with the LED’s to test quickly.
Now that all the segments are ready to go, I lay them out on the cardboard and mark each end of the glue-sticks, and where the wire pokes out with a marker. I then used my awl to punch holes though the cardboard so that the wires can pass though. Finally I used hot glue to mount each segment in its proper place, and on the back side put a dab of glue where each wire comes though.
All that is left for the display is wiring up the LED’s and their current limiting resistors. Each side of the glue-stick is wired in series with each other. Current flows into the anode of one LED, out of its cathode, into the anode of the second LED, out of its cathode though the resistor to ground. (yes I know its backwards but its easier to explain) In order to do this I grabbed my 9 volt and resistor and found the anode and cathode of both LED’s in a segment, twisted the appropriate wire leads together and soldered.
I solder the current limiting resistor to the negative side of the LED series pair and use a bit of cellophane tape to hold down the wires once I am done. From here you should be able to connect each segment up and control the display. But that means you need 7 leads running to your micro controller, and if you wanted another display, well that’s 7 more leads. In order to make this thing easily controlled and easily expanded I will add some simple circuitry.
Making the Controller:
The heart of the circuit is the 74HC595 serial to parallel shift register. This handy little device lets us control the display using a total of 5 wires, and we can chain as many displays as we want without increasing wire count. Shift registers are pretty simple devices to operate, in the case of the 595 you have to worry about three things.
Storage or Latch:
The 74HC595 contains an extra register called the storage register. This feature means you can wait until all the bits have shuffled in before letting them go to output, it also means once the output is in storage, you do not have to update it again until you need to change it. Before you can send data you must lower (ground) the Storage clock or Latch pin. Once you are done sending data you then raise it (+5v) to set the storage register and show output.
Serial Data:
you are going to be sending data 1 bit at a time from your micro controller to the shift register though this input. Have your MCU set a pin high or low then toggle the serial clock.
Serial Clock:
Once your bit is set, a transition from low to high on this input sends the data into the shift register.
As data comes in serially it is sent though a chain of filp-flop circuits, which among other uses forms a basic memory. The 74HC595 is an 8 bit device, so if you lower the latch, send 8 bits to it serially then raise the latch, you would see all 8 bits at once on the chip’s output. This converts serial data to parallel data.
One has to keep the shift register’s absolute max values in mind. Typically this chip will let you pass about 20 milliamps per out put pin, which sounds great for driving LED’s. The catch though is that the entire device can only handle about 70 milliamps before going out of spec. Each one of my segments is going to be drawing about 30 milliamps each. Though these chips can put up with some abuse, this is way out of spec.
To deal with the current required by the LED’s you could use a proper LED driver/sink. There a ton of them out there, but I do not have any. I do have a pile of transistors that can handle 10x that current and more with no issue. This setup is an improper version of transistor as a switch, but will work for a small display and saves the headache of inverted data. More importantly it will let my shift register control each segment with a fraction of the current while the transistor does the heavy lifting.
(click for large version of schematic)
From here everything just needs to be wired up. This could be done pretty easily on a piece of perforated circuit board. If you are like me, or just out of perfboard, and the closest radio shack is an hour away, and you already have the wire wrap out … well you could “dead bug “and solder it. Components are secured into place, and connections are insulated with hot glue and tape.
In order for the display to communicate to your MCU I used a section of 5 conductor ribbon cable. The wires are in the following order. +5, Ground, Data, Latch, Clock. For the display to connect to another display I wired up a little header with +5, Gound, Data, Latch, and Clock, BUT the data is no longer coming from the MCU. It is now being sent by pin 9 of the shift register. Since the shift register is 8 bits if I have 2 of them chained in this way I can then send 16 bits of data, 8 of which will “spill out” of the first register on pin 9 and into the input of a second or third or fourth register.
Since the 74HC595 is one of the most popular shift registers out there, you will be able to find additional documentation for whatever micro controller you are using. I happen to have my arduino near buy as usual so I just whipped up some simple copy n paste software that uses the shift out function.
// hot glue seven segment display test
// define pins used
#define dataPin 2
#define latchPin 3
#define clockPin 4
// define light patterns
byte one = B01100000;
byte two = B11011010;
byte three = B11110010;
byte four = B11100100;
byte five = B10110110;
byte six = B10111110;
byte seven = B01100010;
byte eight = B11111110;
byte nine = B11100110;
byte zero = B01111110;
void setup()
{
pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, one);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, two);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, three);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, four);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, five);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, six);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, seven);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, eight);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, nine);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, zero);
digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
delay(2000);
}
I define a bunch of bytes, each one of those bits is a segment on (1) or off (0). Since we are only using 7 out of 8 bits, bit 0 is always going to be 0, though this could be a decimal point or otherwise. When I wired the segments I started at the top and wired it to bit 1 of the shift registers output, and went in a clockwise motion leaving bit 7 as the center segment. Of course when I flipped the display around I quickly noticed that I had actually wired it counter clockwise (oops). This does not really matter, you just need to know which segment is wired to each bit.
In the setup function I just make my micro controller pins as outputs
and In the loop function I:
Lower the latch
use shift out to send 1 byte (8 bits of data) to the shift register
Raise the latch to see the results
Pause for 2 seconds and go to the next number
And there you go! A giant 7 segment display made out of glue sticks, easy to control, easy to chain, and while not the most awesome thing ever, I hope it inspires you in your future projects.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIWa28KRmW4&w=450] | 50 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "441727",
"author": "Rhyno",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T22:10:16",
"content": "Very nice… looks like a third LED in the center of each segment might be worth trying… Hmm… and RGB LED’s! Nice hack, it’s definitely food for thought.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,377,103.833055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/paddle-controller-for-gpu-overclocking/ | Paddle Controller For GPU Overclocking | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"gpu",
"griffin",
"overclock",
"powermate"
] | [Fred] likes to squeeze every cycle possible out of his graphics card. But sometimes pushing the clock speed too high causes corruption. He figured out a way to
turn a knob to adjust the clock speed
while your applications are still running.
The actuator seen above is
a Griffin Powermate 3.0
. It’s a USB peripheral which is meant to be used for anything you can imagine. [Fred] uses an AutoHotKey script that he wrote to capture the input from the spinner, process that information, then adjust GPU clock speed in the background. Since the clock on his ATi Radeon 5800 can be adjusted using the
AMD GPU clock tool
, it’s an easy choice for this application. Now better graphics are at the tips of his fingers. See for yourself in the video after the break.
Of course if you don’t want to shell out for the fancy hardware you could always
build your own paddle controller
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfb-RznGoKU&w=470] | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "441674",
"author": "Pentesticles",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T20:30:30",
"content": "Does it go up to 11?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "441681",
"author": "Berserk87",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T20:38:12",
"content": "... | 1,760,377,103.743096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/how-not-to-build-a-robotic-lawnmower/ | How Not To Build A Robotic Lawnmower | Mike Nathan | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"lawnbot",
"lawnmower",
"mistakes",
"robot"
] | [shadeydave] wanted to build his own Lawnbot, but he had no idea where to start. He purchased some DIY plans online which looked like they would get the job done,
but then he strayed from the path in a big way
and spent gobs of money in the process.
In his Instructable writeup, he details each misstep he made, explaining why his choices were bad as well as how much each mistake cost him. It sounds like pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong, from spending money on unnecessary microcontrollers to choosing the wrong wheels. Our favorite part is where he mentions that he couldn’t figure out how to create a “kill switch” for the Lawnbot in the event that his transmitter loses contact with the speedy whirling death machine.
[shadeydave] is well aware of how poorly his build went, and primarily wrote it up as a cautionary tale to others out there who might decide to take on a similar project. He says that the Lawnbot works for the most part, but with his newfound wisdom he will be revising the bot, having learned from his mistakes.
We actually like to see this kind of writeup as they can be quite beneficial to someone trying to put together a similar project. So if you have some major flubs under your belt, don’t be shy about digging them out and letting us know. As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Continue reading to see a quick video tour of [shadeydave’s] mostly working Lawnbot.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Ku7O_BW6E#!&w=470] | 26 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "441651",
"author": "G-Reg",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T19:47:31",
"content": "Sooo something i would do. Includeing going off course on design. The needed fast forward on the mowing almost makes it commical.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,377,103.574368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/27/high-voltage-hacks-transmute-the-elements-in-your-garage/ | High Voltage Hacks: Transmute The Elements In Your Garage | Brian Benchoff | [
"chemistry hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"fusion",
"fusor",
"helium",
"hydrogen",
"transmutation"
] | The magnum opus of alchemy was the Philosopher’s stone, a substance that was able to turn common metals into gold. Unlike alchemists, [Carl Willis] might not be poisoning himself in a multitude of ways, but he did build a
Farnsworth fusor
that’s capable of turning Hydrogen into Helium.
To fuse Hydrogen in his device, [Carl] first evacuates a vacuum chamber. Deuterium (Hydrogen with an added neutron) is injected into the chamber, and a
spherical cathode
made of Tungsten is charged to 75 kV. The deuterium gas is heated and confined by the cathode and fuses into Helium. The electrostatic confinement of the plasma isn’t very much different from some old CRT tubes. This isn’t a coincidence – both the fusor and CRTs were invented by
the same man
.
While no fusion experiments – including some
billion dollar experiments
– have ever produced a net energy gain, this doesn’t mean it’s not an impressive engineering feat. If you’d like to try your hand at building your own fusor, drop by the surprisingly active
research forum
. There’s a lot of
really good projects
to look through over there. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "442671",
"author": "bothersaidpooh",
"timestamp": "2011-08-27T12:18:54",
"content": "Nice, well documented.Any chance someone can try my idea of using a PCB with fine tracks etched on it and covered with an insulating polymer with glass 0.05mm away and driven with a sequential drive... | 1,760,377,103.279877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/hacking-steve-jobs-a-retrospective/ | Hacking [Steve Jobs]: A Retrospective | Mike Nathan | [
"iphone hacks",
"ipod hacks",
"News"
] | [
"apple",
"ios",
"mac",
"steve jobs"
] | Provided you haven’t been toiling away in a secret lair somewhere (we’re looking at you [Jack]), odds are you may have seen the news that [Steve Jobs] stepped down as CEO of Apple this past Wednesday.
This earth-shattering news even eclipsed that of the East Coast Megaquakeapocalypse. It sent the blogosphere into a tizzy, sparking a whirlwind of news posts and retrospectives on his career. It’s been impossible to ignore the coverage (we’ve tried), and since we see everyone else writing about it, we feel the need to be at least somewhat up on our current events as well.
At the end of the day though, we don’t care how many patents [Steve] owns, how many failed products he has dreamed up over the years, or that he and [Woz] used to wear matching thongs to the beach in the 80s*.
Nope, we just care about the hacks. So here’s a trip down memory lane highlighting the Apple-related hacks we’ve seen so far in 2011, which will forever be known as the year [Steve Jobs] gave up the reigns at Apple (again).
*Bald-faced lie
XBMC on iOS Devices
Overhauling an old Apple keyboard
Mac Pro serial terminal
Taking secret photos of Apple Store patrons
Apple ][ USB keyboard conversion
Apple ][ Weather Display Parts 1
,
2,
3 | 32 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "442351",
"author": "mess_maker",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T21:56:52",
"content": "I am certainly not an Apple fanboi ( in fact, I am pretty tired of Apple products, though I use them everyday ) I just wish him the best of luck and good health.I am not sure why he is leaving, but I fi... | 1,760,377,103.641725 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/making-oscilloscopes-from-arm-development-boards/ | Making Oscilloscopes From ARM Development Boards | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"lcpxpresso",
"mbed",
"osciloscope",
"rs232",
"stampdock"
] | If you’ve got an ARM development board gathering dust in the corner of your shop, perhaps you could repurpose it as an oscilloscope. [Arend-Paul Spijkerman] was able to use an mbed and LPCXpresso as the hardware end of an oscilloscope. He didn’t use a standalone screen as a display, instead opting to push the scope readings from the hardware to a computer for display. This was greatly simplified by using
StampDock
as a basis for the GUI.
His circuit diagrams calls for an RS-232 connection for the LPCXpresso but not for the mbed. We’re not quite familiar enough with the mbed to know why, but perhaps those in the know can clue us in by leaving a comment. The probe connections are quite simple, each made up of a voltage divider and a pair of diodes. But the breadboard above looks much busier because it has two oscilloscope circuits built on it, and there’s a 10 MHz clock and a 4040 ripple counter which were used to provide a test signal. | 17 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "442332",
"author": "drake",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T20:55:04",
"content": "@creatorWhats the max freq of the lpc this can operate? I’d be willing to build this as a “plug in” to the lpc once I put some male/female headers on it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,377,103.691961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/installing-openssh-on-the-hp-touchpad/ | Installing OpenSSH On The HP TouchPad | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ssh",
"TouchPad"
] | [Russ] was lucky enough to get his hands on a deeply discounted HP TouchPad, and after hearing about the huge bounty being offered for getting Android up and running on the device, he decided to poke around and
see if he could make some headway.
He started off by making a full backup copy of his file system using a tool HP has on their WebOS site, just in case anything unfortunate happened to his device in the process. He grabbed a copy of the ARM cross-compiler and set off to build a copy of OpenSSH for the TouchPad. Once he had the binaries in hand, he started what he thought would be the arduous process of getting SSH onto the TouchPad, but it turned out that it was a simple drag and drop operation.
After remounting the file system to allow write operations, he fired up the SSH daemon and hoped for the best. It worked like a charm, and while it’s a relatively small part of getting Android running on the TouchPad, every bit helps. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "442303",
"author": "OldMacBoi",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T19:53:21",
"content": "Epic",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "442313",
"author": "Colecago",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T20:17:08",
"content": "I wish HP would send... | 1,760,377,103.890084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/a-beginners-guide-to-burning-arduino-bootloaders/ | A Beginner’s Guide To Burning Arduino Bootloaders | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"arduino",
"bootloader",
"ladyada",
"tutorials"
] | When it comes to learning about microcontrollers, everyone has to start somewhere. [Lady Ada] recently posted
a tutorial on burning the Arduino bootloader to standalone chips
for those just getting started with the micro.
The tutorial cites a common situation, where someone is working on a project using an Arduino chip but they don’t want to sacrifice their dev board when just the micro and a few other components would do just fine. A short list of supplies is required, including an Arduino, a proto shield kit, a ZIF socket, and a blank ATmega chip.
The process is probably pretty straightforward and likely familiar to many of you out there. The ZIF socket is soldered to the board and handful of wires are added for powering and programming the new chip. The protoboard is installed on top of the Arduino like any other shield, and using a sketch that [Lady Ada] has made available, the bootloader burning process is a cinch.
It’s a useful tip for newcomers, and definitely a skill that seasoned Arduino users should have under their belts as well. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "442241",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T18:20:43",
"content": "This is a great setup I need to share with friends that are too cheap to buy a real Atm programmer.I wonder if they will add it to the official Duino software package",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,377,104.223767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/milling-curves-into-mirrors-and-glass/ | Milling Curves Into Mirrors And Glass | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cold mirror",
"cutting",
"glass",
"mirror"
] | [Ben Krasnow] is working on a project that uses an extremely expensive specialty mirror. He needed to cut curves into it, taking care not to chip or shatter the material. He’s found
a reliable way of doing this with a CNC mill
and is sharing his methods.
The material he’s working with is a cold mirror; it reflects visible light while allowing infrared light to pass through. He had to custom order it, breakage is not acceptable. [Ben] explains that the biggest risk when milling glass is the clamping method used. He built his own jig and uses shims, rather than clamps, to secure the material along the X and Y axes. It is held down on the Z axis using a bar of acrylic spanning from one side to the other with rubber feet on the bottom.
A diamond burr cutter does the work, spinning at 3000 RPM. [Ben] recommends moving the head at the slowest rate possible in order to give the cutter time to do its work. And of course the material needs to be kept cool by pumping cutting fluid across it. As he shows in the video after the break, what you get is a piece of glass that comes out with clean and smooth edges.
In case we’ve sparked your curiosity, this mirror will be used during an MRI scan. The patient looks at a monitor reflected in the mirror at a 45 degree angle. At the same time, an infrared camera records the patient from the other side of the mirror to monitor where they are looking.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyI111Tn0Cs&w=470] | 18 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "442210",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T17:26:40",
"content": "HAD is uber cool today… What happened?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "442356",
"author": "N0LKK",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T22:05:... | 1,760,377,104.500757 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/26/go-ahead-let-the-kids-play-with-your-digital-camera-after-some-additions/ | Go Ahead, Let The Kids Play With Your Digital Camera… After Some Additions | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"digital camera",
"kids",
"Sugru"
] | Would you throw this camera around on pavement and trust that it wouldn’t get broken? We have a hard time believing it too, but that’s exactly what happens in the video after the break. The colorful add-ons are pieces of
Sugru creatively positioned to help protect the camera
. From what we’ve seen this adds quite a bit of shock absorption, letting the normally delicate hardware bounce and roll. After all,
the stuff is made from Silicone
.
It doesn’t look like the protection is meant to be removed from the camera, although we have seen
Sugru used for that in the past
so this method may be adaptable. A mistake was made during the project which prevented to battery compartment from being opened but it turns out you can peel the stuff of the camera later on, so this isn’t a completely permanent transformation.
We’d wager the camera component to be most concerned with is the LCD screen. We’ve got one that cracked without any plausible cause to point to. But if you’re just reinforcing the device to hand to your kids, who cares if the LCD doesn’t work? It kind of makes it like a film camera again if you have to take all the pictures and then wait to use a computer to “develop them”.
Don’t forget, if you don’t have Sugru on hand you can try
mixing your own
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jLbRQY_gvw&w=470]
[via
Craft
] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "442186",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T16:31:47",
"content": "can it make an ipad kid proof?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "442228",
"author": "vasskk",
"timestamp": "2011-08-26T17:51:09",
"content"... | 1,760,377,104.734808 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/when-airsoft-gets-boring-build-a-coil-gun/ | When Airsoft Gets Boring, Build A Coil Gun! | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"airsoft",
"coil gun",
"pistol"
] | Here at Hackaday, we’re all about repurposing old items you no longer use. Reader [Liquider] wrote in to share his latest creation,
a coil gun built from an old Airsoft pistol.
He removed a handful of components from the pistol and installed a 800 uF/300V capacitor inside the grip. A small storage compartment was added under the barrel, which houses the AA battery he uses to drive the circuit. A modified reloading mechanism makes it easy to drop a metal projectile right in front of the coil before firing.
Once the pistol is charged up, a switch installed behind the trigger discharges the cap, creating a magnetic pulse that accelerates the metal projectile forward. [Liquider] estimates that the kinetic energy produced by the coil is 0.1 Joules, which fires of the slug at a reasonable speed.
Continue reading to see a quick video demo of the pistol in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iznOglJblM&w=470] | 30 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "441110",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T22:10:57",
"content": "Best post ever ! and on my list of things to build. Dam that looks sexy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "441135",
"author": "steve",
"timestam... | 1,760,377,104.447033 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/zigbee-home-automation-gives-us-another-reason-not-to-get-up/ | Zigbee Home Automation Gives Us Another Reason Not To Get Up | Brian Benchoff | [
"home hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"home automation",
"python",
"zigbee"
] | [Russell] sent in a neat
home automation project
he’s been working on. Even though the project only has two devices so far, we can already see the potential of his project.
Instead of the
X10
standard that has been a staple of home automation for more than 30 years, [Russell] went with
ZigBee
modules. Aside from being much faster and more flexible than X10 home automation modules, ZigBees also open up a bunch of projects that would be impossible if he went with X10. With some well-placed IR transmitters hidden in his living room, it would be possible to have a TV and cable box controlled via the Internet.
So far, [Russell] built an network-controlled RGB ‘mood lamp’ and an infrared remote for his central air. Everything is controlled through a web app, and [Russell] says that additional modules can be easily added to the code.
Check out [Russell]’s demo of his project after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ahT2vtcdmY&w=470] | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "441088",
"author": "MobileWill",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T21:21:50",
"content": "Sweet! I was thinking home automation would be my next project. I just got a Ti Chronos and was thinking what I could do with it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,104.376764 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/more-frankenkindle-progress/ | More FrankenKindle Progress | Mike Szczys | [
"Kindle hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"kindle",
"Teensy",
"v.reader"
] | [Glenn] sent us
an update on his FrankenKindle project
. You might remember this hack
from back in July
. [Glenn] is modding the device to make it easier for his sister, who has Cerebral Palsy, to use.
The latest revision adds a case for the hardware. The silver button pad is what remains of the V.Reader (a children’s toy), having had the screen portion hacked off. The case provides a stable base for the reader and buttons, holding them at a nice angle for easy use. There’s just a bit of cable routing that needs to be finished to protect some fragile connections. The picture above does show the circuit board to the side, but there is a place for it around back.
In the video after the break [Glenn] mentions that the response to keypresses is a little sluggish. Sure, some of this is Kindle’s own delay when refreshing the ePaper display. But we can’t help but think the code running on the Teensy could also be optimized. We’ve asked him to post his code if he wants some tips, so check back and help out if you can.
We do have one feature suggestion for him. The Kindle keyboard no longer functions because that flat cable coming out the side is what connects to it. It’s quite easy to
add a PS/2 keyboard port to a microcontroller
. That would be a nice addition to the FrankenKindle as it would make things like shopping for books a bit easier.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roplxL3SgTg&w=470] | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "441075",
"author": "Mr Tuna",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T20:45:11",
"content": "I would have thought that you could speed up the response dramatically by simply just electrically extending the buttons on the kindle itself, maybe? If you just break out UP, DOWN, SELECT, PAGE – and PAGE... | 1,760,377,104.267692 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/cellphone-controlled-retro-radio-stores-and-plays-your-digital-library/ | Cellphone Controlled Retro-radio Stores And Plays Your Digital Library | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"cellphone",
"radio",
"router",
"wl-hdd"
] | [Autuin] was worried about having desirable electronics stolen while on the road with his band. He didn’t want to take a laptop along on tour, but he didn’t want to be without his music either. To solve this problem, he built
a music player inside of a cheap-looking radio
. His write-up covers two different portable MP3 solutions, but it’s the second rendition that catches our attention.
After hollowing out the old radio he filled the void with an Asus WL-HDD 2.5. That hardware is meant to be an easy way to add network storage; it houses a laptop hard drive and has WiFi and Ethernet connectivity. But it also has one USB port, and can be hacked to add a second. [Autuin] did just that, using the two USB connections to add a Bluetooth dongle and a USB sound card. Music is synced with the hard drive via some cat-5 cable that’s hidden in the battery compartment of the vintage box. The NAS runs Linux, and the audio playback software is controlled though a Mobile Java application running on a somewhat broken cellphone. That’s an idea that might find its way into our next project. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "441049",
"author": "harro",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T19:55:32",
"content": "Pretty cool rig.Remindes me of my 60s radio with a thin client hacked in it. Maybe I should also write a little artical about it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,377,104.31246 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/water-powered-multi-channel-audio/ | Water-powered Multi-channel Audio | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"museum",
"niklas roy",
"water wheel",
"water-powered"
] | [Niklas Roy] is rolling out
some water-powered music for Berlin’s Museum night
. It seems that this water-wheel is attached to the side of the Museum. It’s got a stream flowing past it and the wheel is constantly turning. The thing is, that work isn’t being used for anything. Now we’ve already seen [Niklas]
making electricity from moving water
, but that’s far from what he had in mind this time around. Instead he’s driving a multitude of music boxes with the motion transferred from the water.
He teamed up with another artist named [La belle Imira] to build and connect a series of pulleys to the waterwheel. The video after the break shows the rope system being strung throughout the grounds of the museum. After passing around the output drum of the water wheel, the rope snakes through each pulley. Many of the pulleys have the mechanism from a music box attached to their axles, so whenever the water is flowing, music plays. They don’t all play the same tune, so you get a variety of selections as you walk around. We could swear that one of them is playing ‘My Way’.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsVSp7ovbJg&w=470] | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "441030",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T18:45:13",
"content": "Make it sweep the street or do something useful.There’s nothing quite as creepy as about a dozen music boxes playing at once.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comme... | 1,760,377,104.541654 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/the-dish-o-tron-6000-is-back-and-better-than-ever/ | The Dish-o-Tron 6000 Is Back And Better Than Ever | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"dishwasher",
"follow up",
"troubleshooting"
] | When designing a circuit on the bench, sometimes things work far better than they do in real life. [Quinn Dunki] learned this lesson over the last few months
as she struggled with one of her recent creations
, the Dish-o-Tron 6000.
We featured the Dish-o-Tron back in April
, and at that point things seemed to be working out well for [Quinn]. As time passed however, she found the device to be an unreliable power hog. Aside from eating through a battery every few weeks, it kept spontaneously switching states from ‘Dirty’ to ‘Clean’ and back. It was time to take the Dish-o-Tron back to the bench for some debugging.
The random status flip from ‘Dirty’ to ‘Clean’ was a relatively easy fix, and required a small capacitor between the set pin and ground to eliminate the electrical noise that was tripping things up. She nailed down the spontaneous ‘Clean’ to ‘Dirty’ flip to a stuck tilt switch, which she swapped out for a mercury-based model, making things far more reliable. She solved her battery problems by wiring in a 12v wall wart, which might not be any more energy efficient, but it does save her from swapping out batteries all the time.
It’s always nice to see how projects evolve over time, and how the inevitable bugs are worked out of an initial design. | 30 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "440985",
"author": "Quinn Dunki",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T17:09:36",
"content": "Thanks for the post, HaD!The funnest part of this was ordering “illicit” mercury switches from China. I felt so naughty.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,377,104.800815 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/forget-that-boring-old-fire-pit-build-a-flame-tree-instead/ | Forget That Boring Old Fire Pit, Build A Flame Tree Instead! | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fire",
"flame",
"maker faire",
"plumbing",
"propane"
] | Maker Faire is a great event to attend not only because you get to see all sorts of cool designs and machinations, but because you can participate as well. At Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, maker [Brett Levine] put together
a fun and interactive display he likes to call the DIY Flame Tree.
The concept is pretty simple, and he says everyone who participated got a pretty good kick out of lending a hand. Each participant was given a piece of copper tubing and allowed to bend, twist, and sculpt it to their liking before using a drill to add holes wherever they pleased. They were then allowed to choose where their portion of the project would be mounted on the existing tree.
With everyone standing a safe distance away from the display, [Brett] pumped it full of propane and lit the various sections on fire. In the video below, you can see that the display was blown around a bit by the wind, but we imagine it would look pretty awesome on a still summer evening.
Even if you’re not into this sort of art, you have to admit that it certainly beats a boring old fire pit!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_dOTN0GFmA&w=470] | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "440982",
"author": "BitMage",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T17:00:41",
"content": "It’s a burning bush!(Also, first post)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "441176",
"author": "Punkguyta",
"timestamp": "2011-08-25T01:0... | 1,760,377,104.692902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/the-scariest-hacks-from-black-hat-and-defcon/ | The Scariest Hacks From Black Hat And Defcon | Jeremy Cook | [
"News"
] | [] | Although [HAD] is generally all about legal hacking, this list of
demonstrated hacks
could be used for the dark side as well. Hopefully by demonstrating hacks like this, most people can be more aware of how they use their information. Computer security experts also have a chance to hone their skills and see where potential vulnerabilities lie.
Some of the highlights from this article include hacking a Siemens S7 PLC, which can be used for factory automation, a
“hacker drone”
that we’ve featured before, and a method to deduce someone’s social security number from personal photos on social networking sites. Also scary is a method to shut down certain personal insulin pumps. Although serious in itself, one would hope that other life preserving devices would be adequately protected against intrusion.
One hack that seems like it could have interesting uses in the legal-hacking world is the idea of VoIP botnet control. Although “botnet control” obviously implies illegal use, controlling a computer with voice or touchtones can and does have many legal uses. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "440943",
"author": "studioeng",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T15:53:32",
"content": "The only problem with companies implementing ‘proper’ security measures requires them to use their brains, which means it costs the consumer more. It’s a balancing act. Some freaky stuff going down there... | 1,760,377,104.851422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/extrem-konsolen-modding/ | “Extrem Konsolen Modding” | Jeremy Cook | [
"Nintendo Wii Hacks",
"Playstation Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"console",
"mod",
"playstation3",
"wii",
"xbox360"
] | Not to be outdone by their North American counterparts, these German-speaking hackers have come up with a truly unique
console mod
. Although modding one system may be OK for most, the builders of this console decided to combine three systems into one clear plastic box. A stripped down Xbox360, Playstation3, and Nintendo Wii were all put together to form this “Extrem” system.
The build style should be very appealing to those interested in video game hardware. Combining the look of a tower PC with a clear plastic allows one to see all components in action. Since the box is lit up with electroluminescent lighting, one is able to show off this system in the day or at night.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dWEmzA0jXs&w=470&h=345%5D
Although awesome the way it is, one could see this combined with a MAME cabinet, adding more systems to it, or any number of other mods. For another great console mod that is very polished and gives the steps to build it, check out this
portable N64 mod
. | 27 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "440910",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T14:14:17",
"content": "Cool! Another step might be to make the lights stroke in sync with audio out (using beat detection), cpu speed/temperature, or controller input.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,377,104.999858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/high-voltage-build-your-own-84-kv-lightning-stick/ | High Voltage: Build Your Own 84 KV Lightning Stick | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"franklin bells",
"high voltage",
"van de graaff"
] | There’s a proverb that says ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’. Now that stick can come in a high-voltage form factor. The device above, which reminds us of a side-handled baton with a coke can stuck on the end, is
a portable Van de Graaff generator
.
Although debated in the comments, the creator of this hack claims you can shock someone with 84 kV of electricity using the device. Of course as a weapon it’s lacking since we’re talking about static electricity; the voltage can be through the roof but the current is extremely low. Despite that, there are some fun things you can do with them. The video after the break show it throwing off sparks with the lights dimmed. [Yardleydobon] also includes a few other tricks at the end of his tutorial. He makes a set of
Franklin Bells
using two more soda cans with the aluminum tab from one suspended in between them. As he charges it up, the tab dances back and forth, ringing the ‘bells’ it runs into. Once they are charged, the ringing can be restarted by discharging just one of the cans.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByGxX2C2FcI&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb7GLs0yM1U&w=470] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "440894",
"author": "Ben Buxton",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T13:25:46",
"content": "I used to have a sweater made of artificial fibre, which when I took it off after it being over a natural fibre shirt, would get massive static sparks (Around 5cm long) jumping to my nose.Similar voltag... | 1,760,377,104.889037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/24/all-your-io-pins-belong-to-arduinodashboard/ | All Your I/O Pins Belong To ArduinoDashboard | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"dashboard",
"I/O pins",
"processing"
] | So if you’re knee deep in an Arduino-based project and you want to constantly monitor all of the micro’s pins, what’s the best way to go about it? [Jonathan Clark] from LVL1 in Louisville was looking to keep a closer eye on his board and whipped up
an application he calls ArduinoDashboard.
Programmed in Processing, the application gives you a look at all of your Arduino board’s analog and digital pins in a simple to use display. All that’s required to run the application is a bit of code inserted at the top of your sketch, which can be called anywhere in your program’s loop. Once the code snipped is called, all of the board’s pins are read and the data is sent to your PC.
ArduinoDashboard is still very much in beta at the moment, but it looks to be stable enough for everyday use. [Jonathan] has plenty of improvements and new features in mind, so be sure to check back often to see what’s changed.
[via
Adafruit Blog
] | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "440842",
"author": "Alvaro",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T11:08:54",
"content": "Not much different from my old demo application, I guess.Screenshot here",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "440847",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,377,104.936896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/had-links-quakepocalypse-edition-august-23-2011/ | HaD Links – Quakepocalypse Edition: August 23, 2011 | Jesse Congdon | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"earthquake",
"seismometer",
"shake table",
"wine rack"
] | Well, if you hadn’t noticed the news there has been a little bit of a shakeup on the east coast. I just arrived home after being evacuated due to a 30 second rumble the likes of which has not been felt on the east coast in something like 114 years. In lieu of the not so devastating but earth shaking event we thought we’d put together a few earthquake related links for you.
Earthquake-proof Wine Rack
First off instructables user [jofish] has a
quick remedy
if earthquakes are constantly destroying all the wine on your wine rack. He researched some existing commercial products and simply copied them by stapling cheap O rings to the front of the rack. We assume the back of the wine rack is secured to the wall as well.
Vertical Seismometer
Next up is a
vertical seismometer
from [Mike] over at mikesense.com. This was in response to a slightly more threatening 7.2 earthquake he experienced in Baja California last year. A vertical seismometer measures the movement of a weight either electronically or mechanically, and then damps the motion of the oscillation by a magnet or some other means. This particular design is known as the AS-1 developed by [Jeff Batten]. Matt’s page has links to everything you’d need to know including build videos.
Predict Seismic Activity with Hard Drives
If you are looking for some non-conventional ways of tracking seismic activity we have a pair of articles that detail earthquake tracking using your disk drive’s accelerometer. [Michael Stadler] realized the
potential
for all these sensors and released a program that creates a peer-to-peer network compiling data from the sensors. We are not too comfortable with the prospect of somebody tracking every time we drop or kick (or drop-kick) our laptops but 2500 users in Asia downloaded the software in ’06. The
second article
details an effort lead by IBM to monitor the fixed hard drives in server racks which generally remain far more stationary.
Simple DIY Earthquake Simulator
Finally for those of you who want to cause (miniature) earthquakes, we dug up this MTU project using plywood, an electric drill, rubber bands and some bearings to fabricate a DIY
shake table
(PDF warning). We are sure there are tons of improvements that can be made but this is a pretty fun project if you have a bunch of CNC parts lying around (we wish we did). | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "440608",
"author": "William Clinton",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T00:36:19",
"content": "and…. queue all of the people who talk about how it’s nothing because they live in California.That being said, the video surveillance of my server cabinets shaking makes me cringe and think about m... | 1,760,377,105.367626 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/kinect-controlled-delta-robot-has-a-magnetic-personality/ | Kinect-controlled Delta Robot Has A Magnetic Personality | Mike Nathan | [
"Kinect hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"AVR",
"delta robot",
"Kinect"
] | [Malte] is a loyal Hackaday reader and neurobiology PhD candidate with a keen interest in hobby robotics – definitely our kind of guy! He wrote in to share a project he has been working on in his spare time,
a Kinect-controlled delta robot
(
Google translation
).
Deltares, as it is called, is pretty straightforward as far as delta robots are concerned. It uses three servos to actuate the arms, which are controlled by an AVR micro running BASCOM. The AVR gets its coordinate data from his computer via a serial connection after it has been captured by the Kinect. [Malte] opted to use Microsoft’s official SDK for the project, processing the Kinect skeletal data using a small C# application he wrote.
The end result is pretty neat as you can see in the pair of videos below. In the first video, [Malte] uses Deltares as a plotter, drawing a crude face on a piece of paper with a marker. In the second, he commands Deltares with his right hand, using his left to activate the magnetic solenoid to pick up the steel spheres.
It looks pretty cool to us, and we’d love to see what sorts of things he puts together if he ever ends up making robotics his career rather than a hobby.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgKmER2ZQyo#!&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ub8LKPkhos&w=470] | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "440575",
"author": "snowdruid",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T22:39:25",
"content": "thats awesome..however i wonder what kind of precision you can get from this or delta robots in general…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "440582",
... | 1,760,377,105.214992 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/home-tanning-lamps-become-organ-donors-for-a-pcb-exposure-bed/ | Home Tanning Lamps Become Organ Donors For A PCB Exposure Bed | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"exposure box",
"scanner",
"tanning",
"uv"
] | Some projects benefit greatly from the parts a builder is able to find. Take this
UV exposure bed for photo-resist copper clad boards
(
translated
). It looks like a commercial product, but was actually built by [TabascoEye] and his fellow hackers.
The main sources for parts were a flatbed scanner (which acts as the case) and two self-tanning lamps that use UVA flourescent bulbs. By sheer luck the bulbs and their reflectors are exactly the right size to fit into the top and bottom cavities of the scanner. The control hardware centers around an ATtiny2313 micorocontroller, which takes input from a clickable rotary encoder, and displays exposure information on a character LCD. The finished product deserves a place right next to other
professional-looking exposure boxes
that we’ve looked at. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "440573",
"author": "hboy007",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T22:38:10",
"content": "nice build, especially the timer with rotary encoder is very handy. I’ve built a simple version of this some years ago but after using it for some time I found the solid angle of the rays hitting at each p... | 1,760,377,105.310726 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/tree-climbing-bot-climbs-tree/ | Tree Climbing Bot Climbs Tree | Nick Schulze | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"robot",
"tree climbing robot"
] | To test his new skills with his Arduino, [Ben] decided that he would build a robot. With no particular need to fill other than the need to build something cool he chose to build himself a
tree climbing robot
. He designed the body of the robot in Google Sketchup before beginning the build. The body is made mainly from aluminium, with four motors for the gripping legs and one for the spine. [Ben] controlled the motors with the familiar L298 motor driver chip and measured their position and speed using some cleverly mounted potentiometers. The robot can climb trees of varying diameter by using the speed of the motors driving the legs to determine when the tree has been gripped.
[Ben] was then kind enough to write up a full instructable describing the build, this project includes a bit of everything, from motor control and liner drives to tips on creating a robot frame; a good read for someone wanting to get into robotics. Also check out the video after the break to see the robot in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkpH1BjD6Wc&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 15 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "440491",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T20:05:57",
"content": "Wow neat-o!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "440493",
"author": "hacky",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T20:11:08",
"content": "Haha, [Ben] seems a bi... | 1,760,377,105.268406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/we-dont-need-to-brainstorm-projects-xkcd-does-that-for-us/ | We Don’t Need To Brainstorm Projects; Xkcd Does That For Us | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"parallax",
"vision",
"webcam",
"xkcd"
] | [Randall Munroe], the guy behind our favorite web comic
xkcd
, gave us
yet another
great project idea that falls on the heels of
securing our valuables
and
silencing loud car stereos
. The xkcd forum has
been talking about how to implement this
, and we’d like to hear what Hack A Day readers think about this idea.
The project isn’t much different from 3D photography.
[Carl Pisaturo]
has done a lot of art and experimentation based on this idea that basically amounted to largish binoculars. A poster on the xkcd forum has
already built this using mirrors
, but we’re wondering how much the parallax can be increased with this method. Two cameras and a smart phone would also allow automatic pan and tilt that corresponds to head movement.
We’re not quite sure if this idea can be applied to astronomy. The
angular resolution of the human eye
is around one arc minute, every star except for the Sun has an annual parallax less than one arc
second
. If anyone wants to try this out with a longer baseline (From Earth to Pluto for example), we would suggest simulating this in
Stellarium
. Seeing the moon as a sphere would be possible with a few hundred miles between cameras, though.
Tell us how you would build this in the comments, and be sure to
send in your write-up
if you manage to build it. We’ll put it up right away.
Thanks to [Theon144] for sending this in.
EDIT: Because the comments are actually bearing fruit, check out the thread on the Hack A Day forums for this post:
link
. | 52 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "440472",
"author": "Josh Malone",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T19:47:30",
"content": "We apply this to astronomy every day, using the Very Long Baseline Array:http://www.nrao.edu/index.php/about/facilities/vlba10 telescopes from Hawaii to St. Croix (~5000 miles apart) :)",
"parent_i... | 1,760,377,105.52003 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/winterizing-keeping-the-drafts-out-of-double-hung-windows/ | Winterizing: Keeping The Drafts Out Of Double-hung Windows | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"double-hung",
"jointing block",
"windows"
] | [Rumplestiltskin] has had work done on his double-hung windows to help prevent drafts and keep them in good working order. But there are still a few that rattle, and let in the cold of winter. Not this year; he’s
added a small feature to the jamb that will keep out the cold weather
.
A pair of jointing blocks were added to each window. The small block seen above is attached to the window jam with a couple of all-purpose screws, and hosts a machine screw which points toward the window frame. Since there is weather stripping between the two window frames, and between the frame and the outer jamb, tightening this screw will snug the frames up to close any small gaps. This has the unintended consequence of prohibiting the window from being opened (unless you don’t mind scraping the paint as the machine screw slides across the wood). But if only used in the winter months this is a viable solution. | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "440434",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T18:24:59",
"content": "You can use epoxy foam strips for sealing and epoxy latches for rattle too from a building supply source.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "440435",
... | 1,760,377,105.428529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/bluetooth-wristwatch-based-on-an-arduino/ | Bluetooth Wristwatch Based On An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bluetooth",
"lcd",
"wristwatch"
] | We hate to admit it, but we missed out on the TI Chronos watch deal last week. While we’re still a little bit burned over the fact that these watches sold out so fast, [Ahmet] sent in his
Open Source Bluetooth Watch
and we’re thinking this could eventually be a decent replacement.
The watch is built around an Arduino Pro Mini, a scavenged Nokia LCD, and a
BlueSMiRF Gold
. The Bluetooth connects to a Nokia N900 with a little Bluetooth client app [Ahmet] wrote. He also wrote a small GUI for the watch’s LCD display. Afterwards, he was able to display missed calls, new email, and is now working on support for changing songs on his N900’s media player.
Admittedly, a little work needs to be done on the enclosure. Still, the potential for this watch is much greater than the
iPod as a watch
project we saw last year. Right now, we’re thinking about what could be added to [Ahmet]’s watch. An accelerometer would probably be on the top of our list, but if you have any ideas feel free to leave them in the comments.
Check out the walk through of the watch’s functions after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RvVWvOCQYA&w=470] | 30 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "440399",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T17:16:46",
"content": "So cool! Man I have always wanted to do this. I wish I had electrical engineering skills (one day when I take the classes).Just needs a custom PCB to make it thinner and some kind of slick case so you can ta... | 1,760,377,105.789576 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/can-a-dippy-bird-be-used-as-a-temperature-sensor/ | Can A Dippy Bird Be Used As A Temperature Sensor? | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"dippy bird",
"drinking bird",
"ds1820"
] | Dippy birds are the toys that teeter-totter back and forth as the beak of bird-shaped body dips into a container of water. The felt covering the beak and head picks up water and, through evaporation, cools that end of the glass tubing. The temperature changes cause the dichloromethane to either boil off, or condense, shifting the weight of the liquid thereby pivoting the glass body.
The real question is, does the temperature of the water cause the toy to move differently, and can that be measured to calculate the temperature of the water? [Craig] put that query to the test, by designing
an apparatus to measure the motion of a Dippy Bird
. A photointerruptor was used to measure the motion of the body, causing an interrupt each time the tail of the bird passes in between the sensor and the emitter. For control data a DS1820 temperature sensor was positioned near the felt on the head of the bird, and a relative humidity sensor captured readings at the same time. Data from the three inputs was collected over a two-day period. Although not a precise measurement, the motion of the bird did trend in the same ways that were recorded by the temperature and relative humidity sensors. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "440352",
"author": "daniel_reetz",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T15:51:04",
"content": "This post made me realize that passive solar array movers and dippy birds are the same technology.That is really cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,377,105.571545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/lightning-simulator-cant-send-you-back-to-the-future/ | High Voltage: Lightning Simulator Can’t Send You Back To The Future | Jack Buffington | [
"how-to",
"News"
] | [
"high voltage",
"marx generator"
] | Continuing on with our high-voltage theme, today we have a page describing
Marx generators
by [Grenadier]. Marx generators are devices that produce pulses of very high voltage with fast rise times. For most of us, that means that they can make neat sparks. For the more serious types out there, that also means that they are great for driving some high-powered lasers, simulating lightning strikes, and even igniting the conventional explosives surrounding the core of a nuclear weapon! His page includes a video of his Marx generator producing some pretty sparks for those of us who aren’t so serious.
We have featured several of [Grenadier’s]
projects
in the past. This one doesn’t deviate from his normal style of taking a subject and clearly describing it with lots of well-taken pictures.
Recently, he has been working on improving one of his projects that deviates from what he normally does. He is calling it
“The Junkbox”
. The Junkbox is something like a free online swap meet where you can sell your electronic parts. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "440248",
"author": "Punkguyta",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T13:32:06",
"content": "I’ve been dying to make a marx generator for years now, but my mother won’t let me use her credit card haha.I don’t think regular “can” shaped capacitors would ever work for this kind of design would it?... | 1,760,377,105.629611 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/23/barcode-tattoo-has-a-lot-of-thought-put-into-it/ | Barcode Tattoo Has A Lot Of Thought Put Into It | Brian Benchoff | [
"Lifehacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"barcode",
"data matrix",
"qr code",
"tattoo"
] | This
bar code tattoo
was sent into us by [Lifespan]. Before going under the needle, [Lifespan] didn’t care much for tattoos. After seeing
this video
he realized that a tattoo could have dynamic content through domain redirection.
[Lifespan] spent a lot of time going over the different styles of 2D bar codes. QR codes were deemed ugly because of the three large squares in the corners. An EZ Code, like the one in his YouTube inspiration, are a proprietary format that must be read with a
ScanLife
app. He eventually settled on a Data Matrix bar code because of its open format and ubiquity in business and industry. To make the tattoo dynamic, [Lifespan] made the tattoo point to
5id5.com
. With a little bit of smart phone wizardry, that domain can be redirected to any URL in a moments notice.
Like all well-planned tattoos, he found himself a
very good artist
to do the piece. [Connor Moore] managed to ink some skin at 15 dpi, which was a little risky, but the results came out great. While it’s not
scarification via a laser cutter
, barring fading this tattoo is technologically future proof. | 64 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "440183",
"author": "KillerBug",
"timestamp": "2011-08-23T11:18:25",
"content": "That should save him some time when the government forces everyone to get one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "440199",
"author": "Pup",
... | 1,760,377,105.881975 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/22/building-a-contact-mic-using-homemade-piezo-crystals/ | Building A Contact Mic Using Homemade Piezo Crystals | Mike Nathan | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"contact microphone",
"mic",
"piezo"
] | [Leafcutter] is big in to making music and has put together all sorts of musical instruments and tools over the years. Recently, he was inspired to make his own piezo crystals, and
wrote in to share the results of his experiments with us.
[Leafcutter] is no stranger to
messing around with piezo elements
, and after seeing
[Collin’s] tutorial on making your own piezo crystals
at home, he knew he had to give it a try. He stopped by the grocery store to fetch all of the ingredients, then followed [Collin’s] instructions to the letter…well, almost. It seems that he might have cooled the solution too quickly, so he found himself with a jar full of tiny, barely usable piezo crystals instead of larger ones like [Collin] was able to produce.
Undeterred, he decided to see if the stuff was any good, and rigged up a makeshift contact microphone using some conductive foil and a clamp. He piped the output to his amplifier, and wouldn’t you know it…it worked!
He has a small sound clip of what the mic sounded like on his site, and it worked pretty darn well despite the crystal’s tiny size. He is going to give the whole process another go, so we hope to see more experiments with bigger crystals in the near future. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "439754",
"author": "austin",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T21:00:18",
"content": "crystal + foil+amp=microphone?what kind of magic is this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "439770",
"author": "Elias",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,377,105.929752 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/22/setting-it-straight-about-science-fair-solar-energy-breakthrough/ | Setting It Straight About Science Fair Solar Energy Breakthrough | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"fibonacci",
"Solar Cells"
] | There’s been a lot of stories about arranging solar panels to mimic leaves on a tree, thereby boosting their efficiency. But before reading that story you might want to check out this
blog post correcting some flaws in that breakthrough
(page is down, here’s
a cached version
).
Before we go any further, we’d like to point out that the original work was done by a seventh grader.
He looked at leaves on trees and postulated
that the Fibonacci sequence can be found in the layout of leaves, and that by laying out solar cells in the same way you can capture more sunlight. Comments can get negative fast around here, so remember that trashing his work may discourage other kids from participating in science fair events.
Anyway, long story short: there were some issues with original assumptions, and about what was actually being measured during testing. The article linked at the top covers the fact that the cells were not measured under load, and that simple calculations can show why the tree-mimicking-cell-placement can be proven sub-optimal to 45 degree, south-facing solar farms.
[Thanks Jeffery and Steve for the original article and Brian for the follow-up article and cached link] | 58 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "439687",
"author": "GZ",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T19:17:53",
"content": "Innovative idea and way to observe the natural world. It’s a shame about the testing method.Although it’s not the most effective method for SPs it’s interesting to look at the growth process of a tree. The cost... | 1,760,377,106.112286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/22/dino-tells-us-about-transistor-based-onoff-switches/ | [Dino] Tells Us About Transistor-based On/off Switches | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"hack a week",
"switches",
"transistor"
] | You know them, you love them, you take them for granted – they are
single push button on/off switches
. As [Dino] explains in the most recent episode of his Hack a Week series, they are typically implemented in the form of IC logic switches nowadays, but it wasn’t always that way. When they first came on to the scene in the 70’s, the single button soft switches were built using a set of transistors and a capacitor to get the job done, so [Dino] decided to research push on/push off transistor switches a bit and build his own.
After reading through
a short tutorial
, he was ready to go. As he explains in the video, the operation of the switch is fairly simple, though he did run into some odd issues when he prototyped the switch on a piece of breadboard. He’s looking for someone to explain why the unstable circuit suddenly performs better with the addition of a small capacitor between the battery’s positive lead and the circuit’s output, so if you have some insight, be sure to speak up in the comments.
In the meantime, check out [Dino’s] exploration of push on/push off switches below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I70H5xQ6MT0&w=470] | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "439645",
"author": "flaggfox",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T18:25:15",
"content": "The capacitor acts as a ripple filter and probably also as a crude debounce mechanism.See:http://www.labbookpages.co.uk/electronics/debounce.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,377,106.020813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/22/jacks-video-has-been-fixed/ | Jack’s Video Has Been Fixed. | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"corrections",
"whoops"
] | Earlier today, [Jack]
posted his latest video
. He then promptly ran off to the secret Hackaday headquarters to begin work on the next one. Unfortunately there was a weird problem with Youtube which left the video un-viewable. We’ve fixed it now and wanted to let everyone know.
We’ve also been getting lots of questions about the videos, mainly about what future content we’ll cover. Obviously, we’ve only done some very simple and goofy things so far. We wanted to start simple to get the hang of everything. [Jack] has let us know that the upcoming videos are going to be a little bit more serious and deal with some different aspects of pcb design. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "439657",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T18:44:09",
"content": "Maybe this has been asked already, but is Jack your new Hack a Week employee?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "439701",
"aut... | 1,760,377,105.971318 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/22/polarized-art-fixture-made-from-a-busted-laptop-screen/ | Polarized Art Fixture Made From A Busted Laptop Screen | Mike Nathan | [
"laptops hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"laptop",
"lcd",
"polarizing",
"salvage",
"scrap",
"screen"
] | [Pedro] had a busted laptop LCD screen on his hands, but rather than throw it out, he brainstormed what he could possibly do with what would typically be considered a worthless item. He decided to
make a simple art installation
using the scrapped part, so he gathered a few other supplies and got to work.
The first thing he did was pull the LCD screen from the laptop, separating the front panel from the backlight panel. He drained the liquid crystal fluid from the display, and set it inside a picture frame in place of the glass. He added spacers around the edge of the frame so that the backlight could be mounted several inches behind the LCD panel.
[Pedro] then found a few polystyrene and polycarbonate plastic items from around the house, and placed them inside the frame. As you can see in the picture above, the polarizing filter built into the LCD screen makes for some pretty cool effects.
While you could debate for hours over exactly what is art, there’s no denying that his PolFrame looks cool and is a great way to save electronics from the scrap heap. We just want to know what he did with the LC fluid he drained from the screen! | 21 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "439560",
"author": "Roberto",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T16:33:45",
"content": "Is that sheet linearly or circularly polarized?Can the liquid crystal be used for something else?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "439563",
"... | 1,760,377,106.165375 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/22/bounty-for-an-hp-touchpad-android-port/ | Bounty For An HP Touchpad Android Port | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"contests",
"News"
] | [
"android",
"bounty",
"HP TouchPad",
"webos"
] | If you spent your weekend outside and away from the Internet, you might have missed the massive liquidation of HP TouchPads on Amazon, woot.com, WalMart, and the HP online store. Normally a $100 fully featured tablet is nothing to scoff at, but there is a catch: The HP TouchPad runs WebOS. WebOS is a fine operating system for a tablet, but
it’s not Android
. The folks at HacknMod.com
posted a bounty
for the first person to port Android to the HP TouchPad.
HacknMod is offering up $450 for a basic Android port and is looking for sponsors for the WiFi, Audio, Camera, and MultiTouch bounties. There’s a lot of discussion about the port on the
XDA Developers
and the
RootsWiki
forums if you’d like to get a bearing on how far along the project is. The TouchPad
has already been rooted
so there’s your starting point.
We’d like to throw our hat into the ring, but we missed out on the TouchPad fire sale. If anyone knows of an online shop where they’re still available, leave a message in the comments.
via
HacknMod.com | 86 | 45 | [
{
"comment_id": "439551",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T16:16:41",
"content": "Wow, HP’s“server is too busy”to even notify me when they are available again.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "439593",
"aut... | 1,760,377,106.280365 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/22/fpga-bitcoin-miner-is-probably-the-most-power-efficient/ | FPGA Bitcoin Miner Is Probably The Most Power Efficient. | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"bitcoin",
"fpga"
] | [fpgaminer], [li_gangyi], and [newMeat1] have been working together for the last few months to build
an FPGA bitcoin miner
that blows GPU mining rigs out of the water in terms of power efficiency. The board requires only 6.8 watts for 100 Mhashes/second, but [li_gangyi]’s blog says the team expects to hit 150-200 Mhashes with some improvements. That’s efficiency
GPUs can’t touch
.
Bitcoins
are a digital currency that are ‘mined’ by calculating hashes that verify bitcoin transactions. While mining operations can be performed on a CPU,
graphics cards and FPGAs beat CPUs
by several orders of magnitude in terms of how many hashes can be performed per second.
The heart of the board is a Spartan-6 LX150 FPGA – a pricey bit of kit – and the team is selling each board for $440 USD. For that amount of money, you could buy two ATI 6770s at half the price and crunch four times as many hashes a second. At less than 7 watts, though, we wouldn’t worry too much about cooling the rig and the electricity costs will be very low. | 62 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "439511",
"author": "Andrew Smith",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T15:11:15",
"content": "What is a bitcoin exactly?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "439531",
"author": "yetihehe",
"timestamp": "2011-08-22T15:53:20",
... | 1,760,377,106.725031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/21/a-quick-and-dirty-vu-meter-for-your-next-party/ | A Quick And Dirty VU Meter For Your Next Party | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"pnp",
"VU meter"
] | If you want an easy project to spice up your next party, chances are you already have parts on hand to throw together [Mikerbot’s]
quick and dirty VU-meter lights
. The circuit he designed uses the audio input to trigger the base of a PNP transistor, toggling power through a string of LEDs. He’s using four lights for each of the stereo output signals, making them pulse with the music as seen in the video after the break. The circuit is built on a breadboard, and housed in a picture frame with a less-than-impressive diffuser (we think that’s always the hardest part… check out the
Heavy Frost used in this project
if you want something that works really well).
There are some VU meter chips out there that will really augment this concept. But one improvement might be to throw in an amplifier chip like the LM386 and a couple of potentiometers so that you can dial-in the sensitivity.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFnrBWQRTsY&w=470] | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "438983",
"author": "kobilica",
"timestamp": "2011-08-21T17:42:33",
"content": "Not half bad!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "439003",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-08-21T18:37:26",
"content": "needs more s... | 1,760,377,106.423063 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/21/bunnie-mods-chumby-to-capture-epic-time-lapse-video/ | [Bunnie] Mods Chumby To Capture Epic Time-lapse Video | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"bunnie",
"chumby",
"intervalometer",
"mencoder",
"mplayer",
"time-lapse"
] | When [Bunny] moved into his apartment in Singapore he was surprised to find that a huge building project was just getting started on the other side of the block. Being the curious sort, he was always interested in what was going on, but just looking in on the project occasionally wasn’t enough. Instead, he set up a camera and
made a time-lapse video
.
This isn’t hard,
you can find
a slew of
intervalometer projects
which we’ve covered
over the years
. But being that [Bunnie] is one of the designers of the Chumby One, and frequently performs
hacks on the hardware
, it’s no surprise that he chose to use that hardware for the project.
Luckily, he’s sharing
the steps he used to get Chumby capturing images
. He mentions the hardest part is finding a compatible USB camera. If you have one that works with a 2008 Linux kernel you should be fine. The rest is done with shell scripts. Mplayer captures the images when the script is called from a cron job. Once all the frames are captured, he used mencoder to stitch the JPEGs into a movie. See the result after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJFdCW1ftiI&w=470] | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "438938",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-08-21T15:29:55",
"content": "Very nice :) I did the same thing before, except I had the image FTP’d offsite.The problem I had is that although I could find lots of compatible cameras, none of them gave anywhere near the same quality in... | 1,760,377,106.374366 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/21/controlling-a-flyback-transformer-with-an-arduino/ | High Voltage: Controlling A Flyback Transformer With An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"flyback",
"flyback transformer",
"high voltage"
] | If you’d like to build a Jacob’s ladder, an ignition system for a flamethrower, or for some ungodly reason you need 15 kilovolts for a prop replica or cosplay build, this one is for you. It’s an easy to build
high voltage power supply
that interfaces with an Arduino.
After harvesting a flyback from the power board of a CRT, [Andrew Moser] added a new primary coil to the transformer. This boosts 12 volts that can be easily controlled by an Arduino to something that will arc an inch and a half. The next step building the flyback driver. [Andrew] used a MOSFET and MOSFET driver for this circuit (although he says
this guy
works without the driver). After that, all that’s left to do is write some software and test it out.
Of course this comes with the boilerplate warning, “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might die.” That being said, if you ever wanted to test out an Arduino’s resistance to EMP, this is the project for you. Check out the flyback powering a Jacob’s ladder after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xkHPWMX4Sw&w=470] | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "438950",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-08-21T15:54:47",
"content": "I want to see it reversed where the output of the FBT goes through the Arduino. That should make for a nice light show!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,377,106.574033 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/20/what-would-you-put-in-a-shipping-container-makerspace/ | What Would You Put In A Shipping Container Makerspace? | Mike Nathan | [
"HackIt"
] | [
"hackerspaces",
"lollipops"
] | Imagine that you have been asked to construct a portable shipping container workshop that will be sent to the other side of the globe, where the power grid is sketchy and the resources tight. If you had $20,000 to outfit this 20’ container, what components and tools would you include?
This was the question recently posed to us by [Luke Iseman], CTO at re:char.
He and his partners
are in the midst of putting together a mobile makerspace that will eventually be shipped over to Western Kenya in order to help the locals fertilize their land using biochar. The primary function of this workshop will be to build biochar chambers, so plenty of durable tools and machines are a must. They already have a pretty solid list of items put together, but they wanted input the from makers and hackers out there, who may have worked under similar conditions.
Have any suggestions?
Share them in the forum
, we’re sure [Luke] and co. will appreciate it! | 51 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "438593",
"author": "David M.",
"timestamp": "2011-08-20T20:41:06",
"content": "You should probably think low tech and no tech, forget the CNC mill, 3d printers, laser scanners, computers and making PCBs. These are awesome to have for a “true” hackerspace, but pointless in the middle... | 1,760,377,106.962049 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/20/lego-mill-produces-sculpted-models-with-fantastic-resolution/ | LEGO Mill Produces Sculpted Models With Fantastic Resolution | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"floral foam",
"lego",
"mill",
"nxt"
] | [Arthur Sacek] has really got something with the
3D Mill he built entirely from LEGO pieces
. As you can see, it uses NXT parts to control the cutter head along three axes. The drill bit that acts as the mill’s cutting head is not a LEGO part, but that’s [Arthur’s] only transgression.
The demo sculpture seen above was cut into a block of floral foam. The model was processed by Autodesk Softimage before being fed into the mill, where it took about two and half hours to complete the job. The foam comes out still in block form looking like a piece of outdoor carpeting. That’s because there’s no debris removal during the milling process. But hit it with the shopvac and you’ll reveal a physical model with surprising detail. We don’t think it comes close to
the light-cured resin printing
we’ve seen, but it would be a great asset if you’re doing some mold making.
Don’t miss [Arthur’s] video of the milling process after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX1cO2XhMrg&w=470] | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "438569",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2011-08-20T19:26:23",
"content": "neat hack, amazing resolution too, esp for logo!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "438587",
"author": "Piku",
"timestamp": "2011-08-20T19:53:59",
... | 1,760,377,106.633622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/20/glowing-eyes-project-keeps-it-simple-this-halloween/ | Glowing Eyes Project Keeps It Simple This Halloween | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"blinking",
"Halloween props",
"led"
] | Halloween’s on its way and we want to remind you to get started early so you can show us what you’ve got in store for the little ones this year. [Pete] already finished a simple project to spice up the bushes in front of his house. His
trio of glowing and blinking eyes
will make a nice addition to the bushes in front of his house. Each is made from a pair of over-sized LEDs mounted on popsicle sticks. After passing the leads through holes in the wood, they are soldered to some resistors and cat-5 cable. The conductors are covered in hot glue to help protect from moisture, and then they’re ready to be driven by the ATtiny2313 which uses random numbers to help ensure the blinking doesn’t look timed. Check out the video after the break to see how he did.
This is a great example that you don’t have to take on the most complicated project in the world to be appreciated. But if you’re looking to be remembered for years to come you might want to aim high by building something like
the trash-can jack-in-the-box
, or a
puking pirate
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdCPrMGrst0&w=470] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "438509",
"author": "SuperNuRd",
"timestamp": "2011-08-20T16:23:15",
"content": "It’s a Gou’ld (Star Gate Sg1 Refrence)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "438640",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2011-08-20T22... | 1,760,377,107.006733 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/20/weekly-roundup-8202011/ | Weekly Roundup 8/20/2011 | Jack Buffington | [
"Weekly Roundup"
] | [] | In case you missed them, here are our biggest posts from the past week.
The post that drew the most attention this week was our own [Kevin Dady]’s post about
how to install Linux on a 386.
In this post, he talks about the process that he used to put a functional copy of Linux on an old 386 laptop.
Next up is a post about
a robot dog
that was found in an antique dealer’s shop in Paris. This post has a very active comment thread.
Following that is a post about
a LED cuboid
consisting of 2048 bi-color LEDs, which are all hand-soldered. This is definitely a testament to steady hands and a lot of patience.
Next is a
hackaday-original video
where [Jack] shows how to kill weeds using the transformer from a microwave oven. This one was controversial but like it or hate it, it was popular.
Last, we had
a post about a very interesting hexapod
. This robot adds a new spin on the hexapod theme by adding the ability to have all of the legs mechanically extend farther out from the center of the body. It also adds spherical shell pieces to the legs that allow it to transform from a walking to a rolling robot.
One final thought: If you are working on an interesting project, why not post your progress on
our forums
? Have a problem with something that you are working on? We have sections for that as well. Our forums aren’t too active at the moment but we have nearly 90,000 unique visitors at hackaday each and every day so all it may take to whip them into shape is for just a few of you to be early adopters. We would like to start featuring projects and interesting topics from our forums so this may be a way that your project could find its way onto our main page. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "438476",
"author": "somebody",
"timestamp": "2011-08-20T14:39:03",
"content": "I had no idea that there is a forum in Had.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "438494",
"author": "Perry",
"timestamp": "2011-08-20T15... | 1,760,377,107.049105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/08/20/homebrew-weather-station-plus-a-pan-and-tilt-camera-rig/ | Homebrew Weather Station Plus A Pan And Tilt Camera Rig | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"digital camera",
"pan and tilt",
"solar",
"weather"
] | [Sebastian] wrote in to share his web site, where he has a bunch of different electronics projects. After looking through them, we found a pair that we thought you might find interesting.
The first project is a
homebrew weather monitoring station
that [Sebastian] put together. He designed a weather shield, incorporating humidity, pressure and light sensors, along with digital I/O ports for monitoring an anemometer. The entire setup is powered using solar panels, and data is relayed to his computer via an Xbee.
The second item that caught our eye was a
digital camera pan and tilt rig.
The system was built using a Lynxmotion pan and tilt kit, which is controlled by an Arduino. The code he provides allows him to capture very large composite images without having to spend too much time “sewing” them together. While this second project mostly consists of schematics for a base plate and pan/tilt code, it struck us as something that could be very useful for any budding photographers looking to take panoramic shots.
All of the schematics and code for his projects are available on his site, so be sure to look around – you might find something interesting! | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "438715",
"author": "sodai gomi",
"timestamp": "2011-08-21T02:01:56",
"content": "Sebastian’s weather monitoring station is really cool, but what I’d first like to know more about is its bar-and-bracket construction. What’s the real name for these things (rather than bar-and-bracket)... | 1,760,377,106.877265 |
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